Verizon has been hacked. At least their website. They won't announce it publically for 4 - 8 months. But, it's happened. So, how do I know this?
1. In December I couldn't get to my email. In fact, in a facebook group I am in there were a bunch of people with the same problem. Signing in was an issue. I'd put in my username. On the password page I entered my password. Then it looped around to the username page again.
edit 8/21/17:
In the spring, Verizon sent their emails to aol. Same address, just through aol and not their page anymore. That's how this was solved. But, no mention of why they moved the emails.
2. At the end of December data was used on Josh's phone. Problem, Josh locked the data on his cell. One time for the data use he was eating dinner. Another he was sitting next to me as it charged. The third time we were sleeping.
edit 8/21/17
This was actually my confusion. Even with data off, automatically installed apps were updating. It was about 18 months after he got the phone. Once we disabled things like Amazon and YouTube, this was no longer a problem. No hack here. But, the timing didn't help them any!!!!
3. Someone ordered 3 iPhone 7s on my mom's account and deactivated our cell phone numbers. When my mom called to reactivate, the customer service guy didn't seem surprised and knew what to do.
8/21/17 edit:
So..........8 months later this is reported. It specifically mentions Verizon and what happened to us in #3.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/21/business/dealbook/phone-hack-bitcoin-virtual-currency.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fbusiness
I caught all of these right away. We don't have a landline. My cell phone is the home phone. When it didn't work just a couple of hours after it had been working, I knew something was wrong.
I check the wireless account daily. This was less then a 24 hour period for the data usage. All of it so small it would have been missed by a frequent data user. But, we never use data. So when there wasn't 100% data left right after the bill was paid, a red flag went up.
As for the email. I check email several times a day. This happened multiple times over two days. Each time it was fixed. But, started again. Verizon has since fixed that problem.
As isolated incidences, this could just be basic system issues. But, combined, it's clearly the work of at least one hacker. These are all things that can be done behind a computer screen. We are also not the only ones effected.
But, why hack Verizon? Some people save banking or credit card info on the website. That's what the hackers are looking for in some cases. In the case of the purchased cell phones, they were probably trying to figure out how long they could get away with the free iPhones. They work like prepaid phones but this way they don't have to pay for them.
We're hard to hack. The data hack could have been looking for a banking app. You know how some banks have that "picture of check to deposit" feature? If you have that on your phone, your bank information can be accessed by a good hacker. Josh doesn't have that app so they found nothing from him. We also pay through a check sent. Bill pay through our bank.
All have been reported to the fraud department. I suspect Verizon is trying to figure out how much damage was done. They are also likely solving the problem and searching for how it happened. Basically, what all companies like to do.
It's going to be a PR nightmare. So they won't announce it until after it's been resolved. Trying to avoid customer panic. Look like you have it all under control. It's a trust thing.
But, I wanted to bring awareness to these issues. Because Verizon is a large company and customers need to know what's happening. So we can all monitor the accounts more closely and change some things to avoid being victimized by the hackers.
Like all big companies when they are hacked...........................Verizon has a secret.
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