Metro Woman Victim Of Cell Phone Bank Theft

A metro woman says her life’s been turned upside down, after identity thieves stole not her cellphone, but her cellphone number. 

“Megan” is a successful local businesswoman who says her trouble started on January 9th, when she got a cellphone alert showing she had changed her cellphone password, which she hadn’t. She says within 15 minutes, cyber thieves where draining tens of thousands of dollars from her financial accounts. 

“You feel like you don’t exist anymore really because you have no phone, you have no credit cards, you have no bank accounts, nobody can get hold of you,” she said. 

Better Business Bureau Spokesman Sean Rose says the scam is called a  “Port Out” scam.  He says cyber thieves use people’s cellphone numbers to lock them out of their own phones, then clone those phones, to get financial information of their victims.

“It’s incredibly scary,” he said Tuesday.  He says cellphone customers should consider being proactive, and ask their provider for added “port out” security protection.