New Contributor
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5 Messages
Phishing phone call
I just received a call from a blocked ("private") phone number on my cell phone, claiming to be from Cox and stating that my email account had been hacked. When the caller (with a heavy South Asian accent) started to instruct me to log into my email account while on the phone so he could 'instruct' me how to find the hacker's identity, I hung up.
To my surprise, I received two more calls from "private" within a few minutes after I had hung up. I declined to answer the first one, but answered the second. The same man asked "what happened" and I answered "I hung up - and I'm doing it again now" and then I hung up. No further calls.
I find it hard to accept that Cox would contact me about a security issue on my cell phone with a blocked number for the caller ID.
Has anyone else run into this apparent scam recently?
ChrisL
Former Moderator
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7.1K Messages
9 years ago
Just so that the expectation is clear, when our network security team identifies suspicious activity related to a customer's email account they will simply change the password for the affected email function and place a note on the account. For reasons exactly as you've described no contact with the customer will be attempted to avoid any suspicion of phishing but rather it'll be left to the customer to notice a problem and reach out to us for support. All that being said I would not suggest sharing any sensitive information with a cold caller such as the one you've described.
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Tecknowhelp
Valued Contributor II
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2.8K Messages
9 years ago
None at all? Not even a Account change notification? I would think that would cause more confusion then then it would help security. Unless told why their password reset won't they just change their password without any investigation on what caused the suspicious activity?
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ChrisL
Former Moderator
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7.1K Messages
9 years ago
That is correct, not contact will be attempted so as to avoid the appearance of trying to phish a customer's information. You are correct about the confusion aspect as seen by other threads here where customers can access webmail but Outlook doesn't work, etc. Generally speaking it's easier to assist a confused customer than it is a customer that thinks we're trying to impersonate Cox and try to steal their identity.
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Tecknowhelp
Valued Contributor II
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2.8K Messages
9 years ago
So Cox is fine resetting someone's password without telling them, but go out of their way to tell customer they have malware they might not have. This makes no sense considering there are so many people pretending to be technical support asking people for account info.
What about the customers you don't assist at all? The ones who email just doesn't work and the unusual activity continues. This is bad for the customer, for Cox, for everyone. I don't follow your logic. And how do you know this? Have you asked customer? Done tests? From the posts here and the number of people confused, would seem like your assumption was incorrect.
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AllenP
Valued Contributor
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1.7K Messages
9 years ago
This reminds me of the time I complained about Cox deleting outgoing e-mail without notifying me because they "thought" it might be spam. I would send something and it would just disappear ... no notification back. Finally, after complaining, I was told by a level 2 tech "it's our network and we can do what we want". All I wanted was a notification, tell me what's going on. Such arrogance, but I knew I was getting nowhere. Cox changing a customer's password is crazy. I can see locking the account and notifying the customer but just changing the password and waiting for the customer to question it .... terrible customer service.
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Tecknowhelp
Valued Contributor II
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2.8K Messages
9 years ago
Forget terrible service, isn't their Cox ToS that says customer will receiver notification of any account change? Also, considering the account holder password is connected to my phone tools, and phone history is legally required to be PIN protected, how are Cox reps allowed to change my password to something they know without telling me? If they do it to me, I am filling a CPNI complaint.
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