Unexplained Data Increase

From what I've read, I am not the first person to see this...

On Nov 23, 2017, the last day of our billing cycle, we used 6 GB of data (reasonable). On Nov 24, 2017, my billing cycle started over. On that day we allegedly used 111 GB. We followed with alleged usages of 350 GB, 318 GB, and 302 GB, respectively, for the next three days. We then had 3 days of single digit usage. We have since had alleged usages of 107 GB, 373 GB, 321 GB, and 211 GB, respectively, over the last 4 days. The 211 GB was yesterday, when I was home all day, barely using the internet.

Sunday evening, I got another e-mail from Cox warning me about my data usage (we are at 2107 GB since Nov 24th). I immediately reset my router (Apple Airport Extreme) and created a new hidden network with a 12 digit WPA2 password, which contains special characters and numbers. Obviously the password isn't unhackable but probably beyond the scope of the teenage neighbor hacker using our network to game on. So the day after changing our network and making it harder to break into, we still supposedly used 211 GB, which is impossible as I was home all day by myself, barely online.

Monday morning I called tech support. The first tech responded with "Jesus Christ" when I told him we were at 175% of our monthly cap for data less than two weeks into the billing period. He immediately connected me to a higher level of tech support. That individual recommended I run a virus scan on the only computer connected to our network (an old iMac that is slowly dying a slow death). I ran the scan and it found nothing. This same tech looked back at the last three months of our usage and said our highest month was +/- 290GB for the entire month. He had no idea what was going on but said he'd elevate our case. He convinced me we should temporarily bump our account up to unlimited data for an extra $50 a month until we figure out the issue. Then he said he'd credit us for the overages we're going to get charged up until that point.

So, we have no idea what is going on. I've done everything I can think of on my end. Now I'm paying an extra $50 a month for data I'm not using because we can't figure out what is going on.

We have 1 computer (the old iMac) hardwired to the network. We have a PS4 (never used) and an old Apple TV (hardly used) also hardwired to the network. We also have a new Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Xbox One (never used) wirelessly connected. Occasionally we have a MacBook air connected wirelessly. Lastly we have 3 iPhones and 2 iPads connected to the network every day.

Our internet usage and patterns of behavior are identical from the last year and a half since we moved in to this house. Nothing has changed on our end. Our house consists of two adults that work full time and a 4 year old that goes to day care. I'm not a computer wiz but I would argue it'd be impossible for our household to use 300+ GB in a day unless we were file sharing and had 4K movies on repeat (neither of which is true).

I do find it slightly suspicious that our data increase coincided with the first day in a new billing period. I haven't heard back from tech support but I'm not holding my breath. The fact that our usage is still high after changing our network makes m think we hadn't been hacked. I am open to trying anything else if someone has an idea. I don't want to spend an extra $50 a month for data I'm not using. Ironically, we got a call from Cox almost a month ago offering us faster internet or a cheaper bill. I opted for faster internet and now we have this issue to deal with. Good times...Thanks for any help or suggestions.

29 Replies

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JonathanJ
Former Moderator
7 years ago
@rrweather

We like to look into this please email full address and primary name on your account to cox.help@cox.com.
lvmichgirl
New Contributor
7 years ago
I have the EXACT same problem. Our past daily use was 3GB to 17GB. In the last month my daily usage has been up to over 100-200 GB. And on some of these days we aren't even home! When I called they told me to pay the extra $50 to get more GB. Other than that they couldn't help me. We have done nothing different in our house so I thought someone hacked into my wifi so I changed the password. I connected just my computer with 2 devices and I had the same data usage the problem the next day. I scanned my computer for viruses and there's nothing. So I'm frustrated at this point because there is no reason I used 100GB on a day when I was gone with just a computer that was in sleep mode. I'm wondering if it could be an equipment problem. Did you find out what your problem was?
ColleenD
Moderator
7 years ago
lvmichgirl ,

You mentioned after changing your WiFi password you connected your computer with two devices. What other devices were connected? Are any of your devices set to download updates automatically?
fallon
New Contributor
7 years ago
I have this exact same problem. Our data usage has more than doubled in the past couple of months. I even payed the $30 extra a month for an additional 500 gb data and my bill is still $50 extra for data overage. We have changed nothing about our activity on line. We are doing the same thing today as we have for over a year and all of a sudden we are going way over our data usage. My data usage just restarted on the 7th and already it is up to 269 gb. That's only 5 days in. At the rate this is going we will go over on usage by the middle of the month, even with the extra 500 gb added. This is beyond ridiculous!
JonathanJ
Former Moderator
7 years ago
@fallon

Please email your full address and primary name on the account holder to cox.help@cox.com.
brooks001
New Contributor
7 years ago
My account is now showing our data usage at 1209 GB Used for this billing cycle (mid month), double our normal monthly usage, and the billing cycle is not even done yet?

Nothing in our home has changed, my son does online games, chats online, watches YouTube videos and uploads a YouTube video as he has been for months. We have not added or removed any devises in our home, we have 2 computers, 2 laptops, 3 iPads, 3 cell phones and 1 Smart TV. We do not have all these devises running but they are connected as they have been for years.

Before this billing cycle, our average monthly usage was always under 675GB per month up until this billing cycle, I have never received any notifications concerning data usage, EVER!

I also received the following email today at 1:22 PM, claiming to be from Cox:

Email Validation

Hello Dear ,

It looks like You've recently changed your email password, We've disabled
your User ID and Password to protect your confidential financial information. (I have not changed my password}

You only have one more step - you're almost done! Click Continue below to validate your email address.

On Dec 14 I received an email claiming to be from (Ann) Cox Alerts as well, stating that I needed to verify my account, I did nothing, now the email content has been deleted.

Add so it's clear, I have ran multiple virus, malware and ransomware scans on all my devices using Kaspersky, Norton and Microsoft's Security Scanner. (no Issues have been found)

On Dec 4, I received an email claiming to be from Cox Customer Safety, claiming that Cox has identified that one or more of my computers behind my cable modem was infected with the Zeus Trojan/Bot, also known as Zbot.

In the email it provided links to what they claimed to be Microsoft link to the Security Scanner and one for Symantec's website, I did not click on any of the links, I went directly to their secured websites for support and run their scanners. No issues were found.

Below are the current data usage being recorded, I have upped my data package to unlimited to avoid overage charges, please advise if this is a system wide issue on Cox end or if I need to take serious actions on my end.

Nov 18 106GB *
Nov 19 143GB *
Nov 20 75GB *
Nov 21 17GB
Nov 22 8GB
Nov 23 10GB
Nov 24 106GB *
Nov 27 97GB *
Nov 28 106GB *
Nov 29 148GB *
Nov 30 4GB
Dec 1 19GB
Dec 2 5GB
Dec 3 84GB *
Dec 4 113GB *
Dec 5 17GB
Dec 6 11GB
Dec 7 50GB *
Dec 8 16GB
Dec 9 86GB *
Dec 10 7GB
Dec 11 14GB
Dec 12 16GB
Dec 13 11GB
Dec 14 11GB
Dec 15 92GB *
Dec 16 137GB *
Dec 17 6GB
JNL
New Contributor
7 years ago
We have been having the exact same thing happen over the past 4 months. We thought "maybe someone else was using our wifi", but no. It really seems funny that our usage is below 30GB per day, except, starting on the 11th or 12th of the month, exactly 10 days till the end of the billing cycle, our usage spikes to 100-150GB per day and stays that way for 5 or 6 days.

We don't use our internet any differently on those days that usage spiked, than any other days. As a matter of fact, our usage has been minimal on a few of those days, because we were out of town, but they were still spiked. How is that?

How is it that these spikes in usage all happen on the same days every month, since the 1TB data cap was initiated?

To tell you the truth, I think it is Cox padding our usage to make us upgrade to unlimited data for an extra $50/month.

I hope to see a class-action lawsuit.
MarkM1
Former Moderator
7 years ago
brooks001,

We would like to take a look at your data usage meter. Would you please send us an email with your full address & name on the account to cox.help@cox.com? We would like to see if there is anything that may be causing your issue.
MaryF
Former Moderator
7 years ago
Hi JNL,

You mentioned that there were spikes on the days that you were out of town. Do you have a computer that is set up to automatically back up your system to a cloud server? Do you have a security camera set up to record video and stores it on the cloud?
taliancich
New Contributor
7 years ago
I don't see this mentioned here, but if anyone has an avid console or PC gamer in the family, video game downloads could be the culprit and they can happen while no one is home.

I replaced my hard drive in my PS4 and redownloaded all the games I had, and it put me over the cap for the first time.