A real crime story you don’t want to be part of

Be afraid, be very afraid…

An active, non-pre paid telephone number, whether real or virtual, fixed or mobile is essentially a form of unlimited, unsecured credit. There really are bad guys out there probing for unsecured lines and this can bizarrely turn our telco’s into unwitting mafia debt collectors.

In the last few weeks, I’ve become aware of an issue that concerns us all but no-one seems to want to talk about in public.

And thats phone fraud, when I did the interview I’d heard about it, but thankfully I’d never been a victim of it, but on further investigation I’ve been talking to a lot of people who have been victims and its not pretty.

The sums involved can be eye watering and its happening all the time (but especially on weekends). Often the victim is completely unaware until the next bill arrives and then all hell breaks loose.

The industry are aware of the issue as it is a major pain and the TCF are working on it, but I think TUANZ has a real role to play because ultimately this is a user issue and we can help protect our members, raise media awareness and help the carriers deal with a huge problem.

If you or your company have been hacked can you let me know, I want to collect enough stories to be able to quantify the issue, find out what worked and how issues were resolved and suggest ways forward to both the TCF and the Government.

So if you want to share your story email me on chris@tuanz.org.nz or call me on 021 488 188