4 Prepaid Accounts Hijacked, "Account Disconnected."

[zeppelin73]

I manage several prepaid lines, a few have little to no usage but upon attempting to add funds yesterday found that 4 of them were disconnected. This happened to me once around later 2016, I went to add funds to a number and it was "disconnected," only to be stonewalled by the regular front-line customer service droid that it was disconnected and that was that.

The "fraud department" was zero help, telling me that, "we don't investigate prepaid accounts at all," to which I retorted that "postpaid" accounts are really "post-prepaid accounts" since subscribers are billed in advance of service they have not yet used. Further, I proposed that treating a "prepaid" subscriber any less than a "postpaid" subscriber is discriminatory and likely runs afoul of FCC rules, regulations and equal protection [application] of law.
That representative was unfazed.

I concluded that with all certainty, this must be an inside job and someone within AT&T or a subcontracted "customer service" entity who had access to accounts, combed the system for easy marks to swipe the balances from. At the time, only a 4 digit PIN was the entire security barrier. The subscriber name had been changed to someone else, which I managed to get the name and city it'd been changed to and promptly filed a formal telephonic police report there.

A reach out to the FCC with the police report resulted in a call from the highly upgraded "Office of the Vice President" staff and all they did was "resume" the phone number but refused to credit back the balance that was transferred out to some other subscriber out of state. This was spooky. I advised that a mere 4 digit barrier to our account protection was ludicrous and a de facto admission of how little AT&T thinks of these accounts. It was only about a year ago now perhaps, that an alpha-character password was included in the OLAM for "prepaid."

I have four fresh FCC complaints lodged. Again. After the first scare, I methodically screenshot each fund adding instance to show the balance and the last 4 digits of a regular debit card I use. This four lines were just fine at last fund add, early April.

Anyone else run into this?

[kevink1]

This is thought to be related to ATT closing accounts over the last few days that ATT thinks still has incompatible phones.

[zapjb]

If you're adding funds just a month later isn't there a better option for these 4 lines other than ATT prepaid?

[sillyette]

I proposed that treating a "prepaid" subscriber any less than a "postpaid" subscriber is discriminatory and likely runs afoul of FCC rules, regulations and equal protection [application] of law.

Your post got me thinking.

You know, providers should be treating us prepaid customers way better. After all, we "prove" our credit worthiness every time we pay for our service *before* we receive service! Especially true for those who pay an entire year in advance.

I wonder why all the providers treat prepaid worse than postpaid. Is it just because they can't ding our credit? Or because we can leave them anytime?

[zapjb]

...I wonder why all the providers treat prepaid worse than postpaid. Is it just because they can't ding our credit? Or because we can leave them anytime?

Because we pay half as much as postpaid.

[hpham]

You know, providers should be treating us prepaid customers way better. After all, we "prove" our credit worthiness every time we pay for our service *before* we receive service!

You don't prove your credit worthiness by prepaying. A credit worthy customer is allowed to spend/use first and pay later. A customer with no/poor credit history has to pay first or use a "secured" credit card which must have money on deposit to guarantee payments.

[kevink1]

Though if you continue to pay on time you at least establish a history with ATT.

[SoNic67]

Because we pay half as much as postpaid.

^ That!
It has nothing to do with credit worthiness. I have a great credit score, but I just don't want to pay extra for a post-paid line.

[haris163]

^ That!
It has nothing to do with credit worthiness. I have a great credit score, but I just don't want to pay extra for a post-paid line.

Same!

Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk

[zeppelin73]

An FCC filing, one for each, resulted in the usual Office of the Vice President call to me. The phone numbers were resumed, I had to place $5 on each to get them un-stuck, only to be left with a pledge to restore the balances based on the screenshots I take each month adding funds. Still waiting on the balance restoration. There was no definitive explanation as to why they were disconnected, only a "I don't know why they were disconnected."

[zeppelin73]

And so. After about 10 days of getting the four accounts straightened out, I discovered four more that are mysteriously in an "account disconnected" state. Screenshots taken and sent to the email address of the one who "fixed" my first four disconnects since her disposable email address at the "Office of the Vice President" has not yet evaporated. Aggravating.

[dthoward]

And so. After about 10 days of getting the four accounts straightened out, I discovered four more that are mysteriously in an "account disconnected" state. Screenshots taken and sent to the email address of the one who "fixed" my first four disconnects since her disposable email address at the "Office of the Vice President" has not yet evaporated. Aggravating.

Any resolution? Do these lines have grandfathered paygo plans?

[LTENetwork]

I wouldn’t trust any plans you have to store funds for usage unless it had strong security protocols. Security is poor on many of them. Lots of scammers who pray on funds stored online which are easy to hack. I have a prepaid tablet plan but funds are billed to my credit card directly. Only had one issue in that autopay failed once and I had to resubscribe to the same plan. I didn’t get a disconnected message but rather an error saying my auto pay had failed and I had to pick another plan to resubscribe in a short window to stay connected. Fortunately my grandfathered plan was still able to be selected from the list and worked with same payment info used when autopay had failed.