No phone, no pool, no pets. I ain't go no internet. Last night I discovered I had no phone service. I tried calling home and got a recorded message from Verizon stating that I would be connected with an outside carrier to complete a long distance call, either collect or with a credit card. I had paid my Verizon bill earlier in the week, on-line, so it wasn't like they cut my service off. I continued to attempt to call home for about 100 miles. Same recorded message.
After delivering I went to a truck stop and I pulled out my laptop. I figured I would E-mail my wife and let her know my phone service wasn't working. No internet. I did the *611 thing on my phone and talked with a woman at Verizon. She needed my location to check for service outages, even though I told her the problem had existed for at least 100 miles.
Eventually she told me in order to reset my phone, I would need to call her back on a different phone. I was tired and wasn't in the mood for messing around with technical support people from a payphone. I went into the J to use a pay phone to call home. No phone outside, which was a good thing. No phone down the shower corridor or in the laundry room. No phone over by the other restrooms where there once was a Dennys. I'm in a truck stop and can't find a freakin' pay phone. I had to ask where a pay phone was located. I was led to rarely used entry by the vacant Dennys. The entry was cold and dimly lit. The phone was mounted on a pedestal about two feet above the floor. Great for midgets with perfect eyesight and people that walk on their hands. Not so good for me. I was stooped over trying to punch in my home phone number and had some difficulty reading my credit card number. But I succeeded. I was a little over 200 miles from home and decided it would be easier to deal with Verizon in the morning, from home.
This morning I called Verizon from my home land-line. I talked with Jennette, the nice lady from Verizon. To convince her I was me, I had to recite my secret password. It didn't work. I was sure I had the correct password but sometimes I get confused. Once I hit an ATM on the way out of town. I punched in my PIN. No go. I did it again. Nothing. My PIN is only 4 digits. Even I can't forget that. I defiantly punch the PIN in a third time. The ATM ate my card. No card, no money!
We played the secret password game a little longer with her giving me some clues. That didn't work so we settled on the last for digits of my SS number for identifying me as me. She did some checking and asked if I had service at all since purchasing my new phone. My phone isn't exactly new. It is at least 3 years old and I told her that. She informed me that I purchased a new iPhone 5 the previous day and had also bought a wifi Jetpack and upgraded both my plans, all from Bronx, New York. I told her that I had been in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri and Iowa this week, but nowhere near the Bronx. She asked me to hold while she contacted the fraud department.
A minute later Richard, a nice man from the fraud department joined Jennette and we were doing the 3-way conference call thing. Richard sounded too nice and maybe a bit whimpy to be a phone cop. Back in the day Ma Bell had tough, mean phone cops. When I was a kid we would hit a line of payphones at a shopping mall or the bus station checking for change in the coin returns. Once, an undercover phone cop, using a phone next to the one I was checking grabbed my wrist, forcing my fingers into the coin return. He told me to scram and if he ever caught me messing with payphones I was going to disappear.
Richard confirmed that bad people had gotten into my Verizon account and made these purchases, upgraded my plans and changed my passwords, all rendering my phone and aircard useless. Betty from technical services joined our conference called. What kind of name is Betty for a geek from tech services? She was able to
restore my phone service but not my aircard. I had to go to a corporate Verizon store to get a new SIM card.
While waiting my turn at the Verizon store I decided to purchase a Jetpack wifi to replace my aircard. I figured I could sell internet access to homeless people at truck stops and WalMarts and make some extra money. I also decided to buy a new iPhone 5 because my old 4 had been giving me some problems with the Home Button. Nothing a few good hard wacks on a solid surface wouldn't cure, but eventually I would end up wrecking the phone.
So I got a new phone and Jetpack. While Shaun, my newest Verizon buddy transfered all my good stuff from my old phone to my new phone I went home to search through our box of old technology. I found two original iPhones that belonged to my kids. I exchanged both phones for $106 Verizon gift card which isn't a card at all but an 8½ x11 sheet of paper with a bar code on it.
Most of my day was spent either on the phone with Verizon or at the Verizon store. It was a Verizon kind of day. I still don't know how these fraudulent purchases were done. I have a feeling the breach occurred with Verizon and not on my end. The purchases were billed on my Verizon account, not my credit card.
After delivering I went to a truck stop and I pulled out my laptop. I figured I would E-mail my wife and let her know my phone service wasn't working. No internet. I did the *611 thing on my phone and talked with a woman at Verizon. She needed my location to check for service outages, even though I told her the problem had existed for at least 100 miles.
Eventually she told me in order to reset my phone, I would need to call her back on a different phone. I was tired and wasn't in the mood for messing around with technical support people from a payphone. I went into the J to use a pay phone to call home. No phone outside, which was a good thing. No phone down the shower corridor or in the laundry room. No phone over by the other restrooms where there once was a Dennys. I'm in a truck stop and can't find a freakin' pay phone. I had to ask where a pay phone was located. I was led to rarely used entry by the vacant Dennys. The entry was cold and dimly lit. The phone was mounted on a pedestal about two feet above the floor. Great for midgets with perfect eyesight and people that walk on their hands. Not so good for me. I was stooped over trying to punch in my home phone number and had some difficulty reading my credit card number. But I succeeded. I was a little over 200 miles from home and decided it would be easier to deal with Verizon in the morning, from home.
This morning I called Verizon from my home land-line. I talked with Jennette, the nice lady from Verizon. To convince her I was me, I had to recite my secret password. It didn't work. I was sure I had the correct password but sometimes I get confused. Once I hit an ATM on the way out of town. I punched in my PIN. No go. I did it again. Nothing. My PIN is only 4 digits. Even I can't forget that. I defiantly punch the PIN in a third time. The ATM ate my card. No card, no money!
We played the secret password game a little longer with her giving me some clues. That didn't work so we settled on the last for digits of my SS number for identifying me as me. She did some checking and asked if I had service at all since purchasing my new phone. My phone isn't exactly new. It is at least 3 years old and I told her that. She informed me that I purchased a new iPhone 5 the previous day and had also bought a wifi Jetpack and upgraded both my plans, all from Bronx, New York. I told her that I had been in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri and Iowa this week, but nowhere near the Bronx. She asked me to hold while she contacted the fraud department.
A minute later Richard, a nice man from the fraud department joined Jennette and we were doing the 3-way conference call thing. Richard sounded too nice and maybe a bit whimpy to be a phone cop. Back in the day Ma Bell had tough, mean phone cops. When I was a kid we would hit a line of payphones at a shopping mall or the bus station checking for change in the coin returns. Once, an undercover phone cop, using a phone next to the one I was checking grabbed my wrist, forcing my fingers into the coin return. He told me to scram and if he ever caught me messing with payphones I was going to disappear.
Richard confirmed that bad people had gotten into my Verizon account and made these purchases, upgraded my plans and changed my passwords, all rendering my phone and aircard useless. Betty from technical services joined our conference called. What kind of name is Betty for a geek from tech services? She was able to
restore my phone service but not my aircard. I had to go to a corporate Verizon store to get a new SIM card.
While waiting my turn at the Verizon store I decided to purchase a Jetpack wifi to replace my aircard. I figured I could sell internet access to homeless people at truck stops and WalMarts and make some extra money. I also decided to buy a new iPhone 5 because my old 4 had been giving me some problems with the Home Button. Nothing a few good hard wacks on a solid surface wouldn't cure, but eventually I would end up wrecking the phone.
So I got a new phone and Jetpack. While Shaun, my newest Verizon buddy transfered all my good stuff from my old phone to my new phone I went home to search through our box of old technology. I found two original iPhones that belonged to my kids. I exchanged both phones for $106 Verizon gift card which isn't a card at all but an 8½ x11 sheet of paper with a bar code on it.
Most of my day was spent either on the phone with Verizon or at the Verizon store. It was a Verizon kind of day. I still don't know how these fraudulent purchases were done. I have a feeling the breach occurred with Verizon and not on my end. The purchases were billed on my Verizon account, not my credit card.
