I got a call today that was so wild even I have a hard time believing someone could put someone through all that. I am usually not a careless person, like if someone ask you name right off the bat I don't answer yes, I usually say first, "whose calling". I didn't even have to say that as the conversation didn't start out that way. The number was 858-290-6938 but it didn't come with a spam warning on my phone, so I just thought it was one of my brothers calling from an exchange number reserved for companies who inmates make calls through. The guy starts right off saying he's from AT&T and he starts asking me questions about if my service has been working properly, if I experienced any dropped calls to which I replied my service has been working fine. He went on to explain that AT&T was running a special because they had lost so many customers over the last few months. He called it a customer retention offer of reducing customers' bills and asked if I'd be interested in the details. I thought it a bit odd AT&T would be calling customers who haven't shown any signs of being dissatisfied with their service an offer of retention, so I asked him why would you be calling me if I am not dissatisfied with my service, I am a bit dissatisfied in the last rate hike, and I was really dissatisfied to the point of getting rid of AT&T cable last year but you aren't making an offer on the cable. He said this was just a special offer for people with wireless service. Since the call hadn't come through a typical 800 or 888 number, is didn't seem quite right, why call someone who doesn't have a problem with their cell service. I told him it sounded sort of weird, but he said before I made any decisions to let him fill me in on the details of how much I could save. He said a preliminary look at my account showed my bill would go down to $53.20 a month. I asked him how he could see my account without getting a password or code. He said it was just a basic look at the account, but he'd have to send me a code through a link on my phone that I would give him, and he could access my account to see if I qualify for the deal. I imagine that's where I made my mistake.
It's not unusual for representatives to say they have to send a code to verify it's actually you they are talking to by sending a code through a link you give them before they release any information or account details, but this was the first time someone said they needed to send a link to access my account. They'll usually just ask for your phone number or account number than ask to verify it's actually who you say you are before discussing your account. I mentioned that to him, and he said my name is Jason White, my employee number is JW7531, my direct line is 858-290-6938, if you have any problems with the offer, you can call me directly and I can get it worked out for you. Really at that point all alarm bells should have been going off because this guy could hardly speak English and his name was Jason White, what's the chances of that! Like zilch. I was hesitant but I thought he was just going to try and offer me that federal program where they reduce your bill. I guess I was just waiting to hear that catch phrase from him more so than concerned he was a scammer, and a lot of the foreign speaking people will often use an English first name, and I never had a problem, so I went ahead and let him send me the link. Big mistake.
I still can't figure out how he managed to get into my account just by verifying it was me on the phone. It wasn't like I call them directly; he called me. But that was an afterthought that should have been a forethought because that's not usually how it works. Anyway, he goes to detail that the $53.20 my bill would drop down to would be for three years and considering it would be a tremendous savings on my bill it might afford me an opportunity to upgrade to the latest Iphone. I am not that into my phone, I call and text on it, that's about it is what I told him. I told him I don't even have internet on my phone unless I am at home and use my wifi to connect, which is rare. He started going on about how the phone was free and all I had to do was pay the taxes. I told him it wasn't in my budget this month to pay out for anything additional I wanted as I could imagine an upgrade to the newest Iphone was probably costly so the taxes would run about a hundred bucks. He calculated the taxes and said it would be sixty-seven some dollars and he'd make it so I wouldn't have to pay this month's bill if I wanted the phone. He said I am making the changes on your bill right now and you can go look at the email I am sending that noted the changes on my account. I told him it would take a minute for me to go look. He said he'd wait. When I pulled up the email it said changes were made to your account, click here to see the changes. So, I click on it and that's when I noticed there was something really wrong. There was no notation of changes, instead there was this:
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I knew something was really wrong at that point. I never changed my password or updated any payment methods. Instead of giving him the heads up that I knew something was wrong I just went back to the phone and politely declined his offer. He asked if I got the email. I said yes, I got the email but like I said I don't really have it in my budget this month. He said you can pay next week; you just give me your card number and we'll automatically run it on any day next week you want. I went on about how the holidays were coming up and that amount I could buy two Christmas presents for my grandkids with that money hoping he'd just cave and give up. Nope. He went on about my bill that I would pay next month would be more than the taxes I'd pay for the phone; you won't have to pay a bill at all and after that you'll only be paying $53.20 a month which will save you even more money for your holidays. At that point I had no choice but to tell him how it really was with me. I told him, look, I am not the type of person who needs the newest shiny objects.... that's where he went off the rails, I mean really off the rails. He said in a real mean deep voice, "you are wasting my time" to which I replied back to him that it is debatable who is wasting whose time since I am not the one trying to get you to buy a Iphone. He got really hot and started literally screaming on the phone how much time he has wasted on me. So, I hung up. You'd thought it ended there, but oh no, oh no, no, no, no, no.
He calls me back on another number. He said, "you lied to me that you don't have any money because I just took $300 out of your account for early cancellation fee." I told him, "I don't think so because I don't have $300 in my account, I don't have a contract with an early cancellation fee, and I didn't cancel my account." He said, "I just cancelled your account and got payment confirmation from your account ending in XXXX." I told him no you didn't because I don't have $300 in my account, my bank won't process it because I don't carry overdraft protection on my account, and if it does go through and I get an overdraft fee I will be suing AT&T." He insisted the payment had already gone through, and I told him I'd be calling the bank to make sure it doesn't go through, and he reminded me he cancelled my service. I called it bull crap because I was convinced at this point, he wasn't from AT&T so how could he do all that to my account. He insisted there would be a payment confirmation in my email and good luck calling the bank. I thought he was joking just to get at me but when I hung up on him, I couldn't call out on my phone.
I go to my email, and he not only made a payment of $300 on my account, he suspended and then also cancelled my account:
Service(s): Wireless | |
AT&T Account ending in: XXXX | |
Payment amount: $ 300 | |
Payment method: BankDraft | |
Payment date: 10/30/24 ***
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Hello,
The following account has been removed:
AT&T account ending in: XXXX
If you canceled this service within the last 6 months, we removed this account from your user ID automatically.
I couldn't use the phone to call AT&T so I had to drive out to a AT&T phone store to get the issue resolved. They reversed his payment he made on my behalf, walked me through getting another password set up and another secondary verification code in place and turned my phone back on. I said to the lady that I don't understand how he got into my account just by sending a confirmation code that it was me he was talking to. She said somehow, he got my password and bypassed putting in the code. When AT&T was hacked, they made everyone change their codes but not their passwords, so for anyone who hasn't changed their passwords, they may want to at this point. Unless of course, you like going for a wild ride like this guy tried doing to me. Can you even imagine him having called me back and telling me I lied to him about how much money I had, unbelievable, what a trip that was.