Cell Phone Owners Are Being Warned About Porting Scams

A member of the state legislature is warning the public against cell phone porting scams. Attacks like the Equifax hack, where millions of Americans’ personal information was compromised, criminals can obtain and use your personal information to impersonate you. Cell phone porting, or port-out scams, involve using a victim’s name, cellphone number and other personal information to take over cellphones. Representative Bob Thorpe of Flagstaff says it’s easy to prevent. He says he contacted his “wireless provider to increase the security around port-out authorization.” He says “call your provider and ask them to freeze your port, and that will block scammers from taking over your cell.” Once a scammer obtains your personal information, they can contact your provider online or over the phone and say they want to move your cell number and service to another carrier. For the next 24 hours, the scammers have control of your cellphone and your private information, such as online banking.