Could dishonest AT&T employee use my Iphone Info?

Discussion in 'privacy problems' started by dionisiog, Aug 13, 2013.

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  1. dionisiog

    dionisiog Registered Member

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    Hi,
    I've had problems in the past with an AT&T employee (SW AT&T) helping some of their friends to harrass me by passing on my unlisted phone numbers on a land line.
    Recently a family member decided to help me by the surprise gift of an Iphone. It was (horrors!) unfortunately served by the same AT&T network.
    Shortly after my service began, even though my phone was never listed in my name, harrassment began on that device. I do not give out my phone number.
    And of course new phones are used for other things. I am wondering how dangerous a situation like this could be privacy-wise.
    The person that started this harrasment situation has been with it for far more than a decade.
    Any thoughts out there? The guy that started this is a true wack, (not hacker) & has apparently decided to make me a hobby.
     
  2. Bob D

    Bob D Registered Member

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    Such behavior is a serious impropriety. Assuming you have some evidence, report them. They'll not be AT&T employees much longer.
     
  3. dionisiog

    dionisiog Registered Member

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    The initial conclusion that an AT&T employee was passing on my changed phone #'s came from another AT&T employee. I had been recieving harrassing calls on my land line in Houston, Texas. AT&T would change my # and in spite of the fact that I told no one, within an hour harrassing calls would resume from the same group of latinos. After changing my # at least 3 times an AT&T rep said only an employee could get the new # and pass it on, but that there appeared to be no way to trace it to a particular employee.
    I went through the same affair with my new phone. No better results after changing #s. Today, after involving the FBI at a few points, I am harrassed through other methods than live voice calls. And of course my new phone does more than take calls.
    This is more than 20 years down the line.
    In case you are curious as to what started this, I refused at the time to help one friend deport another when they had a disagreement.
     
  4. Techwiz

    Techwiz Registered Member

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    If you know the number of the receipt, I'd imagine AT&T could reverse look-up presuming its a company device or a device running on their network. If the employee is using different numbers with each calls, then you could try blocking calls/texts from that number. I don't know if this functionality has been granted to apple users, but I heard rumor apple was going to permit this in a future update. Don't take my word for it, since I use android. Now obviously this could backfire, as an employee with account access could escalate to other forms of harassment that are far worse. But maybe this escalation could make it easier for the company to trace back to the employee(s). If your really cynical like me, before you consider changing carriers; consider, distributing the number(s) of the employee(s) online. If you blow up their phone, they might be a bit more inclined to stop.
     
  5. JackmanG

    JackmanG Former Poster

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    So first it was more than a decade, now it's more than two decades. As hard of a time as I have believing that someone is literally calling your number on such a regular basis that they come in hours within a number change, for 20 years, I'm going to suggest a few things.

    1) Stop getting phone numbers in your name.

    2) Set up call block for all private/hidden numbers.
    3) Set up call block for all the numbers that have called you harrassing.

    4) (or alternatively) Set up call block for all numbers except the ones you whitelist.

    5) Keep your phone turned off until you want to use it.

    6) Get a phone that can only make emergency calls.

    7) Get rid of your phone.
     
  6. dionisiog

    dionisiog Registered Member

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    Aha!

    You both certainly have got a hold on my reality.

    Yes, it is for more than two decades, I sometimes am reluctant to innitially mention the total depth of this annoyance because it is a bit shocking. Therefore I assume people might be more skeptical if I actually tell them how much I have had to put up with. The AT&T employee was clearly helping my wacko 'friend' to harrass me.

    I have for sometime been using Google to send many of these calls to spam. There was a time when these calls would come as close as a minute apart. I think the interest of this person was to isolate me in revenge for my refusing to help him harrass our mutual acquaintance. He elicited friends to call me at all hours. When I changed my number I subsequently eventually discovered with the help of an AT&T employee that only another AT&T employee could have been giving out my new phone number. So that conclusion was given to me by AT&T and that employee also told me that there was no way to trace such an activity available to AT&T thmeselves the way the system was set up.

    I couldn't figure how people could ever have so much time to harrass someone until recently they screwed up. When they realised that many of their calls were now going to Google spam, they attempted to get my mobile number. All remained secure until my sister in an attempt to help me financially gave me a gift of Iphone service... on AT&T.

    I was reluctant to use the phone but when you don't have a lot of money, free mobile service is pretty hard to resist.

    Harrassment began now via random calls & messages. They sounded like real people. But one day I went through and discovered the same phone number had at one time dialed my land line in the past, leaving a message. This number later dialed my mobile number directly. The very exact same message was recorded at a different date on a totally separate phone, not my land line, but my Iphone. So now I knew how these people were managing to call me as frequently as one minute apart! These messages in many cases were now being pre-recorded. They were getting lazy about harrassing me so they had begun to pre-record their messages.

    I began forwarding my Iphone number to Google which means phone communication today has to be in time-delay. Needless to say, most people like to communicate directly.

    For your understandably skeptical point of view:

    Google conveniently keeps a record of these phone calls & numbers, so yes, there is ample proof since Google voice has existed of these calls having taken place to my various phone numbers.

    I personally do not have the equipment or know how to 'blow-up' someone's phone. I would also assume that this activity is illegal and that this is the very type of behavior that this type of people would like to get me in trouble, while they in fact go freely on their way harrassing me. An d I have no idea how I could track these calls to an original number. Google may have that information, caller ID suggested different numbers for different calls which I received. I am not a hacker, I certainly don't have the money for the kind of private eye research it might take to track down these people and AT&T could clearly not track the activities of their own employees.

    Anyway. Too much information. 20 years on it is better to stick to the basics. How can I put it? I obviously have acquired a very persistent stalker. And since I have previously taken all the steps which you mentioned (except attempting "blowing up" the AT&T employee's phone) I am clearly considering the expensive route of throwing away the phone & free phone service gift.

    The one question remains: Do you think that this dishonest AT&T employee could be accessing my activities on my Iphone to further track me? If I was better off financially, even though it essentially brings a sort of sicko victory to this wacko nutcase, I of course might have dumped AT&T and this phone yesterday. I am wondering how much threat this situation is to my well-being in the age of smart phones.

    I may have stopped my phone from ringing, but what else could these people accomplish with the help of information obtained from my Iphone use? Or am I over-doing it to worry about such a detail? Are they limited to calling my number and harrassing me?
     
  7. JackmanG

    JackmanG Former Poster

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    I call BS. Even if you're telling the truth about this "20 years of harassment", there is no way you did all of the steps I listed, otherwise you wouldn't be having this problem.

    How in the hell did you get a call from a number that harassed you previously, if you blocked the numbers that harassed you previously, per suggestion #3? How in the hell did people continue to discover your new numbers, if you did not get them in your name, per suggestion #1? How in the hell did people call you if you blocked all numbers except specific ones you whitelisted, per suggestion #4? How in the hell did people call you if your phone only had the ability to make emergency calls, per suggestion #6? How in the hell did people call you if you did not have a phone, per suggestion #7?
     
  8. puff-m-d

    puff-m-d Registered Member

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    Hello,

    One thing that I can say for sure, if it is an AT&T employee that is actually harassing you, then a simple phone call to AT&T would solve your problem. You would have to have the customer service person escalate the case to proper management, but AT&T (and I am sure all other carriers) have the means and methods to end your harassment.

    I can say this as I used to work for AT&T and know for a fact that everything an employee does is tracked. Every different task requires a different user ID/password that is unique to each individual and system. No systems can be accessed without these credentials. The systems are also internal and must be accessed from a terminal dedicated/owned by AT&T. Even for example in my case and if I still had credentials, I would not even be able to get to the web pages necessary as all systems are internal to specific AT&T entities involved. Clearly if an AT&T employee is doing this, it can be traced back to individual that is doing it.

    Again, my advice is to call AT&T, have your case escalated high enough up the chain so someone with the proper authority can actually look into it, and give them a reasonable amount of time to investigate. If you have not received a decent reply within a reasonable amount of time, do not hesitate to call back and have your case further escalated. There is no reason for AT&T not to be able to resolve your issues given a proper amount of cooperation from you.

    This is just my experience from actually working for AT&T and knowing their systems and securities in place. If your issues are legit, I hope this post may help. The most important thing to do is have your case escalated to a level where an actual investigation can be done. The first few levels of customer service will not have either the access or credentials to do anything to actually help you. It must be escalated up high enough to someone who does.
     
  9. dionisiog

    dionisiog Registered Member

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    OK
    Clearly there is some confusion here & each of you are missing some items that I have stated.
    The original person that was harrassing me seems to have known an employee that worked at AT&T. That employee assisted this person in passing on my changed phone number when I AT&T did change it in an attempt to protect me from the individual that was harrassing me.
    I think it is clear that each time I blocked a number that calls to harrass me came from new numbers which might have been fake numbers (ie: bluffed caller id#s, perhaps).
    Lastly, whether intentional or otherwise, both of you seem to not have an interest in answering my very basic question. It is not whether I have been subject to harrassment. There simply is no doubt to that detail. I have.
    My remaining question was whether any data on my phone might also be accessable if there was in fact a dishonest AT&T employee involved. And AT&T at one time said there was. Niether of you seem interested in that question.
    So what is happening here?
     
  10. Snoop3

    Snoop3 Registered Member

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    just tell AT+T to look into it and either they get it stopped or you will switch to another carrier. simple as that.
     
  11. dionisiog

    dionisiog Registered Member

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    That is the unfortunate conclusion which I am coming to as well. So much for my gift Iphone & free AT&T service.
     
  12. JackmanG

    JackmanG Former Poster

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    No dude, your question has been answered multiple times, and you were even offered several solutions to stop your harassment.

    1) Yes, an AT&T employee could access your info. (That's kind of their job.)

    2) You could easily stop the harassment by any one of these steps:

    a) Stop getting phone numbers in your name.

    b) Set up call block for all private/hidden numbers.
    c) Set up call block for all the numbers that have called you harrassing.

    d) (or alternatively) Set up call block for all numbers except the ones you whitelist.

    e) Keep your phone turned off until you want to use it.

    f) Get a phone that can only make emergency calls.

    g) Get rid of your phone.​

    You claim you tried all of those. I call BS. There is no freaking way you could sign up as a brand new customer with a brand new number under a completely different name and have someone find you within an hour. You're simply lying.

    And why the heck would you need to get rid of your iphone just because you switch carriers?
     
  13. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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    Tone the comments down. Not needed here.
     
  14. JackmanG

    JackmanG Former Poster

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    Well is it true? Is it possible that someone could actually sign up as a brand new customer for a brand new number, and still have the same harasser call them again at the brand new number within an hour of creating the new account?

    All I'm saying is, he either did NOT get a new number under a different name, or he didn't get the harassing call an hour later.

    How could that possibly happen?
     
  15. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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    That's what we would like to find out. As far fetched as things may sound, things happen. :)
     
  16. JackmanG

    JackmanG Former Poster

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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam's_razor

    I think the more likely explanation is he just hasn't been listening and claimed "I already tried all that" because he's more interested in his problem than solving it.
     
  17. ronjor

    ronjor Global Moderator

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    That's an opinion and opinions are not answers.
     
  18. dionisiog

    dionisiog Registered Member

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    Woweee! Mr JackmanG.
    You must have a lot of time on your hands.
    Please let me know when hour spaceship lands.
    For me, this issue is closed.
     
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