Cloning cell numbers: BEWARE!!

Oh, I should learn more about this. I know nothing about the cloning thing. How does that work? How do I prevent it?

Cloned Sprint cell phones racking up thousands of fraudulent calls in V.I.

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17638741

Our bill this month was $6700~ just a little more than our ususal $230. I had called the fraud department at Sprint earlier this month, and had changed my number. That very afternoon, someone was still calling Jamaica with the NEW number! I go online to Sprint almost daily to keep track of the fraud. I hope they catch the bum(s)

The cell carriers apparently make a lot of money on this or they wouldn't tolerate it.

I'm mean just how difficult is it to add the code to stop it?
Anything in the usage not comparable to the average at any given point in the billing cycle would set an alarm to contact the user and or look at where the calls originate and call for help.

Prolly a lot of people just pay the bill w/o even thinking about it until it gets outrageous and so pay for the thieves usage.

Same with the message scam. I mean why do I have to listen to bitch-in-the box tell me how to leave a message?
Some carriers do not have a bypass option and if they do they never tell you about it so you gotta listen like it or not - but his one has brought the feds down on them so it will be changed.

Wow, I had no clue the daily news article had been posted when I started the thread. Good thing I switched carriers the day after it started happening just coincidentally, otherwise I might have gotten an even higher bill!! From the article, it seems that the phone in question needed to be prgrammed so my new at&t phone was by definition, reprogrammed.

BTW, wireless number portability is possible with the VI area code. My 340 number was switched from Sprint to At&t w/o problems.

i have sprint. did you have to pay the bill? that is scary.

the other day in the states my mom got a call from someone posing as my niece and said she was in jail in canada and needed my mom (her grandma) to wire 2,000 to her or she would be there for two months until her hearing. she even made her voice sound alot like my niece. thank god my mom was aware of something and caught some things my niece would not say. even mentioned her son and how he must miss her.
my mom then found that this is going on alot in the states. people getting cell numbers (prob. people in jail) and calling asking for money.

so watch this scam also. on tv in n.c. and iowa they said this has happened alot to older people. scamming them out of alot of money.

I do not have to pay the $6700 bill. After accounting for the fraud phone calls, my actual bill came to $182.00. Much more like it. I still check each phone line online to be sure they weren't cloned again!

thats scary. i will start checking also. we did get a call the other day from someone in calif. wanting credit card # .. the nerve!!!

Hey guys, I just got cloned and scammed yesterday. The bill was around 500 dollars and I only realized it because my new minutes roll over on the 23rd and I wanted to check to see how bad I went over last month. Turns out there were hundreds of calls to Jamaica on my phone number, some within minutes of real calls I had made.

The fraud department said I will not end up paying to fradulant charges, but I am on auto pay and the web site says it takes 2 or 3 billin cycles to cancel auto pay... so I am having to call my credit card company to tell them not ot accept any charges from Sprint. Hopefully it will all work out.

Fraud guy also told me they can get the number again just by calling me and getting my voice mail, or calling and talking to me for a minute. I got a text message from a Jamaica number within SECONDS after hanging up with the fraud department that said "Please call me!"

Crazy.

-Beth

I kept getting calls on my new AT&T phone from the jamaicans but was assured by AT&T that my number can't be used by them even if they keep calling and texting. Something about AT&T using a different technology and sim cards which makes cloning their type of phone impossible. Finally I got so fed up that the last time they called I told them I knew that they were tryin to use my number illegally and that they had been reported to the police and FBI. And that the FBI were after him. That shut him up and I haven't received another call since!

i have all of a sudden started getting wrong numbers on my cell (sprint) does this have anything to do with the scam or is it just what is IS......wrong numbers???

Dixie, just keep an eye on your daily call log, if you can, online. Ours started with wrong numbers from people in Jamaica. And messages from people in Jamaica. Just be prepared.

thanks beth i will start checking immediately!!!!!