[LINK] phone hacking 7.30 report and our Stil

[Alex (Maxious) Sadleir]

On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 7:42 PM, Kim Holburn <kim at holburn.net> wrote:
> I was just watching the 7:30 report on the ABC and saw our Stilgherrian talking about securing your phone against Murdoch ;-).  I have been wondering why there hasn't been more movement by phone companies to make their message banks more secure.
>
> My solution btw - get your phone company to turn your messagebank off.  Doesn't solve the D.O.B. as biometric password problem though.

Reminds me of a funny/sad incident I had with virgin mobile
australia's marketing contractors which seemed more like the textbook
chocolate/pen for your password trick.
My complaint and their response below:

 Customer (Alexander Sadleir)	21/09/2009 03.23 PM
I got called by 0286666650 today with an offer of bonus credit for
being a good customer. The voice on there didn't match the usual
virgin customer service prompts. The lady I spoke to asked for three
details: name, mobile number and virgin PIN number. I didn't feel
comfortable giving that out to someone who'd called me so I asked if
she could verify she was acting on behalf of Virgin Mobile Australia
but she declined to give me any verification details (I suppose if she
had given my account details out without my PIN, that would also be
irresponsible). However she did give me a number to call back -
1300365960. This number doesn't match the customer service number
listed on the website (presumably because it it is only for this
special offer). I called this number and got the standard virgin moble
voice/prompts. After giving my PIN to the man who answered, he walked
me through what the offer was and he was able to tell me when I first
joined Virgin Mobile which is information I can't see on the My
Account site!.

Still, I think it would be safer if these offers came as voucher codes
that can be entered safely at my leisure. Or if the program was
verified through the standard customer service access points such as
an announcment on the website or an option on the normal phone number.

--- Their response:
Thanks for your email.

We do apologise for the confusion. Virgin mobile has set up a specific
group of people to contact eligible customers about the great offers
we had for pre paid customers. I've had a look on your account and it
shows that you've accepted the offer and it will be applied according
within 2 business days. We do understand that identity theft do happen
and we are not surprised if you're in doubt about the call you
received from Virgin mobile. We value your feedback and rest assured
that we are tirelessly doing our best to serve you even better.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

Regards,
Gary

Virgin Mobile Customer Service Team
Ph: 1300 555 100 (7am-11pm AEST) Fax: 1300 555 733