A fraud scam is targeting customers using phone calls, text or social media messages. These callers pose as representatives of service providers, often gaining trust by citing “recent outages in your area”, “a class action case”, or “research on service quality”. They may even provide fake employee numbers. Once trust is established, they offer tempting promotions for deals.
Next, they will ask for sensitive information such as Driver’s License number, credit card details, passwords, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) verification codes. ❗You should never share your one-time verification code with anyone. It should be used only on a Bell multi-factor authentication (MFA) validation screen (e.g., when logging in or making changes to your MFA details).
If provided, this information is used to either take over the account and order devices and services, access other accounts or create additional accounts with other companies under the victim’s name.
What to watch for
Be cautious when receiving calls with very attractive offers or promotions. Remember, legitimate companies already have your personal information and will never ask you to provide it again. Be extra cautious if the phone number seems unfamiliar. Fraudsters can “spoof” or change the name and number that appears on your phone, to make their calls appear to come from legitimate business, making it harder to identify them.
Additionally, be aware of unsolicited text messages from 10-digit numbers offering special offers. Those are often scams, so ignore and delete them immediately.
What to know
Fraudsters are very skillful, sound professional and can be very convincing. Bell is aware of the techniques fraudsters use and follows practices to protect your account and personal information. Bell will never:
- Request personal information such as credit cards, banking information, or passwords over the phone unless responding directly to an inquiry made by you or are following up on your past due account.
- Request the MFA code received when logging in to your MyBell account
- Pressure you to make an urgent decision
What can you do to protect yourself and prevent fraud?
- Trust your instincts – if you answered a suspicious call, hang up
- Be wary of unsolicited offers or ones that appear “too good to be true”
- Never provide personal information over the phone unless you initiated the call
- Do not share your username, password or MFA/ one-time verification codes
- Regularly monitor your accounts for unusual transactions
- If you receive a call from your service provider and are suspicious, advise them that you will call them back. Bell customers can reach Bell by dialing 310-BELL (2355)
- Report any unauthorized transactions (email confirmations) to your service provider
- Regularly check your credit reports (Equifax/Trans-Union) for any unusual activity
What to do if you suspect fraud
If you believe you may be the victim of fraud there are a few things you can do:
- Log in to your account and change your password
- If there is any suspicious activity on your Bell account report it to Bell Loss Prevention, by contacting 1-800-509-9904
- Report it to the Canadian Anti Fraud Centre
via their Online Reporting System or by phone at 1-888-495-8501 - Report it to local police
To learn more about how you can protect yourself online we encourage you to read our other articles plus visit Bell.ca/securityfor more in depth information.
