A well-designed system can prevent a lot of problems. Sadly, the opposite is also true. And a key part of our cellphone system, Canada-wide, is badly designed.
On Saturday evening, at 11:07 p.m., I received a text message from Rogers, my cellular provider. It said that Rogers had received a request to “port” (transfer) my cell number to another service provider. If this wasn’t the case, I should call the provided number immediately and inform them. I saw the text message 19 minutes after it arrived and called the number as soon as I could verify that the text itself wasn’t a scam. I was talking to a live human being within about half an hour from when the message was sent, and informed that person that any attempt to transfer my number to another user was not authorized.
Too late, I was told. My cellphone number, which I’ve had since I was 17 and will need to eventually be pried from my cold, dead hands, was already gone. Rogers could get it back, the agent told me, but not until the next day. In the meantime, I should hang up and start changing all my passwords, because the porting of my number wasn’t an accident. It was the start of an attempt to steal my identity.
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