Posssible New Comcast Scam?
Jim McLaughlin
This morning, Thursday May 23, 2003, I open up my E mail and I have a
note from my good friends at Comcast. In the note, I am welcomed to
Comcast's "On Line Bill Paying" system, told that I will no longer be
receiving paper bills in the mail, and will need to set up my on line paying
arrangements.
This was news to me because I have never signed up for Comcast's on line
bill paying in my life. Didn't want it before, and I certainly don't want it
now.
I clicked through to the site and lo and behold, Comcast wants a credit
card number and my SSN.
Having "inherited" me the way they did, Comcast has never before had this
data from me.
Despite popular opinion to the contrary, I am not a complete idiot, so
I left the site.
I called Comcast on their 1 888 number. Talked to a in customer service
giving the name of "Sylvia" who gave her employee number as "YEO".
"Sylvia" went through the "what's your phone number?; whats your
account number?", drill.
The next question should have been "what's your address?" which Comcast
has used many times when I've called about service.
Instead, she asked, "Whats your social security number?"
I was quiet for about 15 seconds while I processed that one, Then I
told her I had never had that question from Comcast before, and that given
the recent issues about Comcast's policies on selling ID data I would not
give it to her.
She was quiet for about 15 - 20 seconds herself, and then said, " OK,
what's your address?"
We proceeded with the call, and she promised that I had been removed
from their "On Line Bill Pay" program,
It looks to me like Comcast is working very very very hard to get credit
card and SSN data on all its customers.
Very odd.
clevere
paper billing.
"Jim McLaughlin" <jimmcl...@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:ZG6za.227312$pa5.2...@rwcrnsc52.ops.asp.att.net...
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Ed
about an hour after the news had ended and talked to one of their customer
rep's about stopping them from passing along my personal info. Long story
short, the person on the other end did a song and dance routine saying that
the News Stations are providing false information to the public (hmmm like
Im supposed to automatically say.. "Ohh thank you for telling me the truth",
I shouldnt have believed a news report). She promised that comcast was
sending out contrary info of the news reports to their "customers". Well ya
know. .. I wasnt impressed with the answers by their customer service
person, and have yet to recieve that promised info either.
With identity theft on the rise, Im sure not going to let my personal info
out to someone making 6 bucks an hour.
--
Pursuant to U.S. code, title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, Section 227,
and consistent with Oregon State Law, any and all unsolicited commercial
E-mail sent to this address is subject to a consulting fee of $500 USD.
E-Mailing denotes acceptance of these terms. Consult
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"Jim McLaughlin" <jimmcl...@attbi.com> wrote in message
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S.N.
We techs aren't all thieves you know ! ;)
I work as a tech support agent in Vancouver for another ISP.
Comcast on the other hand is asking for Social security #'s as a way to
identify you as the owner of the account. Technically they could do it many
many other ways. And they only thing you should ever have to give them, is
the last 4 digits of it. If for whatever reason they allready have it.. you
never have to give more then that.
2nd... we make decent money. I make $10.21 an hour. It's not bad pay..and
as a tech taking calls from whiny, snively, bitchy people, trust me , we
deserve a lot more then that !
We get the shaft from customers even if it's not something we did. They call
complaining bout how "we must have killed their computer" or how " You
locked me out of my system now I can't log in" . Right. We sit here and
spend hours just thinking of ways to piss people off by hacking their little
ol home box with nothing on it. I wish it was that easy! ;)
Anyway.. comcast has issues. I made a payment to them 3 months ago on my
credit card. It showed ass paid. 2 weeks later they called and said I was
overdue... even though I had a receipt. Fought long and hard to get that
fix. Then the next month they sent me a bill for $108 for 2 months worth..
saying my first month was never paid. We went over it again. I made my
current payment. This month.. guess what.. I just got a bill for the first
month again. When I called them.. I asked for a supervisor. They looked in
the computer at all the times I've called , and how each time, they indeed
found a reciept in the system for ALL my payments. They admit to having
some "slight" billing issues.
Slight ?? wow.. they are fubar.
"Ed" <e.pelawR...@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:rP7za.422762$Si4.3...@rwcrnsc51.ops.asp.att.net...
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Aaron 'Katt' O'Donnell
"Jim McLaughlin" <jimmcl...@attbi.com> wrote:
> It looks to me like Comcast is working very very very hard to get credit
>card and SSN data on all its customers.
I just signed up for Comcast's special $10/month promotion they had a
couple weeks ago. When I went into the Beaverton office down on
Nimbus, they asked for my SSN. I refused, they just said "ok" and went
on from there.
The lady at one of the front desks got annoyed when I balked at giving
them my driver's license number, though.
--
Aaron `Katt` O'Donnell
http://www.aaroncity.com
os...@techie.com
"Aaron 'Katt' O'Donnell" <pdx...@surfbest.net> wrote in message
news:4hsqcvo7ttgfp49ki...@4ax.com...
driver's license number? wow, you've gotta be kidding me! they are nuts if
the think the are going to wrest that private information from me. thanks
for the heads up.
Ed
thieves, but out there in the world are companies and individuals in every
job type that push the envelope with shady practices. Your reply proves you
dont fit the stereotype I was referring to. And yep a good tech support
person is worth their weight in gold. I agree that customers on the other
hand can also be a pain in the ass as I was a tech controller for quite a
long time as well.
--
Pursuant to U.S. code, title 47, Chapter 5, Subchapter II, Section 227,
and consistent with Oregon State Law, any and all unsolicited commercial
E-mail sent to this address is subject to a consulting fee of $500 USD.
E-Mailing denotes acceptance of these terms. Consult
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/47/227.html for details.
"S.N." <fort...@pumpkintechnologies.com> wrote in message
news:vcqcmjd...@corp.supernews.com...