Winnipeg woman says scammers stole her mobile phone number

A Winnipeg woman says she was the victim of a new scam where someone stole her phone number, then used it to try to gain access to her personal information. 

Meghan Chorney got a text message Monday night saying someone had requested to move her number to a new service provider, and to call Rogers if she didn't request the change. 

But when she Googled the number, she found warnings saying it was tied to a scam, so she ignored the text, thinking it was just someone phishing for her info. 

After that, someone tried to login to her Google and PayPal accounts, using her phone number as the second form of authentication. She managed to catch the attempts and change her passwords before they took over those accounts, but not before they changed her authentication questions. 

The next day, her phone stopped working while on her way to work. 

"I tried rebooting it, I tried a bunch of things and nothing was working," she said. 

When she logged into her online account with Rogers, it said her line was moved to another provider. Rogers told her they weren't sure how it happened. 

"They said if they knew how it happens they could stop it from happening, but that there was nothing that they could do," she said. 

"It's really concerning, because when I call(ed) in, they asked me for my name, my birth date, a password I have on the account."

Number porting scam  

The phenomenon is known as number porting or SIM swap fraud. It occurs when a fraudster steals a victim's number and has it transferred to a new service provider — a process also known as porting. 

In an email, Bill Killorn, a senior manager of media relations for Rogers, said the company has recently implemented security measures to try and prevent it. 

He also went on to say Rogers takes "protecting our customers' personal information very seriously, and as fraudsters evolve their tactics, we work with other carriers to continually strengthen processes to prevent unauthorized porting, including new protections put in place this fall."

Other victims of a similar scam have come forward to CBC News in other provinces, including Neeraj Kumar, a veteran telecommunications consultant in Ontario, who said his number was fraudulently ported in November.

Kumar said he was "shocked" after calling his service provider to alert them about the unauthorized port.

"I explained the situation to them. They said they don't have any clue," he said.

Kumar said the service agent eventually confirmed that his number had been ported, but that it could take up to 48 hours before it was returned or suspended.

"A lot of damage could be done between now and those 48 hours," he told CBC Toronto.

Another victim recently told CBC News in Ontario that someone attempted to blackmail him after stealing and porting his phone number. The fraudster used the number to access intimate photos and videos on the victim's cloud storage account.