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Ask SN: Best Way to Report a Major Security Problem at a Cellular Carrier?

posted by janrinok on Sunday July 19 2015, @07:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the good-luck-with-that dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

I tried to return an item to a nearby carrier-owned store, but they couldn't find my information. They never gave me a printed receipt and couldn't look it up with my phone number or name.

Now here's where it gets fishy: the clerk wanted to log into my e-mail account with the store's computer! When I told him I didn't have a web mail like GMail, etc, he asked another guy, who also said I should just log into it from there and find it.

I'm pretty sure I was giving deer-in-headlights looks while I was there. Flabbergasted is probably the word. Considering their "POS" system is based on Windows and has regular problems, this just seems tailor-made for keylogging, social engineering, or worse. I probably won't use my credit card there again.

So my question: how do I report this? Just calling customer care obviously won't cut it. I have a very hard time believing this is SOP, and that this is probably just this store--and where there's one, there are probably more.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2015, @12:31AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2015, @12:31AM (#211217)

    Since you will not out them here. Here are the 4 numbers you might call. But these may not be right because it may be an MVNO in which case it will be harder.

    at&t 1 (800) 331-0500
    t-mobile 1-800-T-MOBILE
    verizon 1 (800) 922-0204
    sprint 866-866-7509
    You may even be able to dial a # number right from your phone to get help. Many have that. It will be in your contacts list.

    Now here is the fun part. Keep calling until you get someone who cares or even knows what you are talking about. I work for one of them (will not say which for obvious reasons) and even internal tech support can be 'interesting'. Just keep calling. EVENTUALLY you will find someone who cares. Once you get that you will get swift service. The trick is you will be *wildly* off script. They are not used to this sort of situation and mostly are not trained for it. So be consistent and patient. You are probably dealing with some poor dude who just got the job and its not in their script books and training. This sums up very nicely what you will be dealing with http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/07/thank-you-for-calling-tech-support-now-please-die/ [arstechnica.com]

    Now as for the store itself it may or may not be even under the control of the carrier. You will see a myriad of different companies that are resellers. For example my company has 1 store in my area. But there are probably 50 resellers that have the company name on them in my area.