I am a rep in the Georgia area and we are having floods of people come in trying to activate 1-5 Blackberry Torch lines at a time with new numbers and whatever color we have in stock. Anyone else across the country having this same problem? They usually have a $100 deposit or have a line like "customer service approved us for lines/walmart was out of phones."
Of course they are taking these phones and selling them for hundreds of dollars more than they paid for them, but it's amazing what we have to watch for so we do not get charged back on quality activations like this. I won't go into detail, but when I hear the word "Torch" and "Activation" in the same sentence I make sure to do a SSN search and many other searches to make sure they have not tried to set up a line at another store.
I'm in georgia, and we're having the same issue. it appears to be a guy who's basically paying guys to come into the store and get the phones. He pays them for doing the transaction and then resells the phones. We've had 5 alone this morning.
The way I look at it, as long as the credit check passes with an in state ID, I'll do it. I might get a chargeback later, but it's only taking back money I wouldn't have made anyway.
My statements and opinions do not reflect those of my employer, AT&T Mobility. This is disclosed per FTC regulation.
After trying many phones, the one phone that is worthy of this spot is the 6620!!
Feedback Score
0
It's happening in CA too. I've reported it to fraud at the time of activation and most of the time they will ask the customer for additional info and the customer doesnt have it. I'm pretty sure the ID's are fake and they are using stolen socials. When they come in I take the social and look it up in telegance where I normally find multiple tentative bans.
I don't see the company doing anything about it and I'm at a loss as to why they wouldn't.
It's called equipment gaming and it's difficult to stop and hard to trace. And the company has special teams set up to handle it and it's not handled by fraud unless they are fake SSN's or real SSN's that have been stolen. There are gaming teams shutting them down as quick as they can be identified. It's also a product of social engineering where someone manages to get enough information of an established customer's account, to upgrade their existing lines by getting authorized users added to the customer's accounts and they can stroll into any sales outlet and walk out with phones. Sometimes, they are very good and there is no paper trail, but sometimes they leave a great trail and you'd be amazed at where it's coming from. Sometimes you see authorized users added just minutes before they walk into a store and get the phones.
It's a loss for the company and a loss for you guys in sales because the stolen upgrades on existing customer's accounts are reversed when it's found and those setting up new accounts get shut down and cancelled pretty quickly. Of course the #1 phone stolen by gaming is the iPhone, and Blackberry is next. For awhile it was the Bold and now it's the Torch. And they love the different colored Torch's......the white and the Red.
Trust me, the company is doing something about it, but stopping it is nearly impossible. Maybe someday we'll all have to use retina or fingerprint scans to start phone service.
As required by the FTC I am declaring that I am an employee of at&t Mobility and anything I say is my own opinion and in no way expresses the opinion of at&t Mobility
I suggest for you guys that if someone comes in and is interested in torches
or even iphones/high end devices, and they are a authorized user..check
and see when they were added and don't be afraid to call the account holder
and ask if they know this person. 9/10 times the last name is completly different.
There is key signals that gives away fraud.
1. color doesn't matter.
2. no accessories
3. statements like "I just need the phone"
4. paying with cash
5. asking how many they can get/multiple torches
We've caught a few people in store already trying this, and 90% of this fraud
coudl be stopped in store by just making a call and asking.
I always love talking to Equipment Gamers. We get them ever so often in this department because they are either calling departments that they think they can convince to reactivate numbers, do number changes, or whatever they need or sometimes they combine equipment gaming with port fraud.
Thier always the best social engineers and its like a test of how well you handle them
My opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinions of my employer AT&T.
We've caught a few people in store already trying this, and 90% of this fraud
coudl be stopped in store by just making a call and asking.
That would help. Unfortunately, they go into stores like Best Buy often, or split up their purchases and get a couple phones at a cor store and 3 more at a Best Buy or at an Apple store.
Another tip-off is that they don't want the phone activated. Probably 9 out 10 of these phones never had a SIM card activated in it when we look into it after the fact.
After trying many phones, the one phone that is worthy of this spot is the 6620!!
Feedback Score
0
Originally Posted by cousinpaperclip
It's called equipment gaming and it's difficult to stop and hard to trace. And the company has special teams set up to handle it and it's not handled by fraud unless they are fake SSN's or real SSN's that have been stolen. There are gaming teams shutting them down as quick as they can be identified. It's also a product of social engineering where someone manages to get enough information of an established customer's account, to upgrade their existing lines by getting authorized users added to the customer's accounts and they can stroll into any sales outlet and walk out with phones. Sometimes, they are very good and there is no paper trail, but sometimes they leave a great trail and you'd be amazed at where it's coming from. Sometimes you see authorized users added just minutes before they walk into a store and get the phones.
It's a loss for the company and a loss for you guys in sales because the stolen upgrades on existing customer's accounts are reversed when it's found and those setting up new accounts get shut down and cancelled pretty quickly. Of course the #1 phone stolen by gaming is the iPhone, and Blackberry is next. For awhile it was the Bold and now it's the Torch. And they love the different colored Torch's......the white and the Red.
Trust me, the company is doing something about it, but stopping it is nearly impossible. Maybe someday we'll all have to use retina or fingerprint scans to start phone service.
Thats great and all but how do we get the information to this team?
I've had many come in, having activated a few lines somewhere else only to request more because the other store was "out of stock." I can usually spot em. and I just inform them that I am out of stock. f**kers
A prince should have no other aim or thought but war and discipline, for that is the only art necessary for one who commands. - Machiavelli
I get these idiots all the time. When I bring up the account it usually shows zero usage in PDC and of course the account was activated recently. I usually just say that I'm not authorized to add lines to an account opened less than 30 days ago unless I activated the first line. If that doesn't work I'll make up some other excuse and they'll move along..
I work at Best Buy mobile and the same thing occurred, they added 2 White Blackberry Torches, Paid With Cash, Phones stayed closed. Same thing happened with other BB employees. Best Buy Mobile is the perfect and easiest place to fraud. And the thing is they leave no trace, even if the line gets cancelled they still have the torches to sell.
The thing is Best Buy's activation site is too simple for any of this, we can't see when they first activated the plan, cant search social, cant search anything like that. we can only activate lines and nothing else.
How do they do it though cuz they have the last 4 of the social and the rest of the info. They are an authorized user, they use a fake ID, its not their real name on it, it's just the picture. Do they have inside information from someone who works from customer service and gets the social and the name of authorized users etc.????
Can someone explain step by step how they can do this/get this info??
We had an interesting situation unfold here over the past few weeks. Mom and son come in to add a line and convert to a family plan. No big deal in my eyes so I do it. Apparently they left me and went somewhere else immediately after and activated 3 more lines (I was done with them at 7:30pm so they had roughly 90 mins to do it.)
Fast forward to today. Mom and son come back in to add lines to a new T-Mobile account. They got 3 phones from one of our other locations yesterday (T-Mo iCAM tells us the activating dealer right there on the screen). They said the other store was out of stock. I checked the computer (they weren't). They went to the other store and were promptly turned away. They then went to another location where they were turned away.
If you are in national retail (like I am) or a dealer with multiple locations it is important to relay information to stores in your area. News spreads quickly through the fraudster community that certain stores are easy to hit and others don't play games.
This has been hitting us like crazy here in Auburn, Alabama over the past 2 months. I bet we have had 20+. A lot are coming from Columbus, GA. We have started to tell them we are out of Torches.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Stea1th
Bookmarks