Can a phone account be locked so that the number can't be ported out from Cox?

My father's phone number was ported to another carrier.  He didn't want that, but who knows what the other company said or did.  In my option they were preying on the elderly.  I am hoping that there is a way stop this from happening again by locking it down somehow.  Is this kind of thing possible?  Maybe require an additional verification step on the Cox side of the transfer so there is a double check before the transfer happens?  When this happened, it took about a week to figure out why the phone stopped working, and then a week to get the number ported back from the other carrier so it was pretty frustrating.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Dave