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CapBBeard

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#195434 20-Apr-2016 10:07
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Hey guys,

 

So I recently upgraded from a Nexus 5 to a 5X. This necessitated moving from my older micro SIM to a nano SIM.

 

I headed down to my local Spark store to get this sorted. Let me be clear upfront; I was served in a professional and friendly manner by the staff, so no qualms with them personally.

 

In saying this, I am pretty gobsmacked by the total lack of any sort of identity verification, particularly in todays age where a lot of services use SMS as a second authentication factor, or account reset mechanism.

 

Here's a simplified version of how our conversation played out:

 

Me: I've just got a new phone, can I please move over to a new nano SIM?

 

Spark: Sure, what's your number?

 

Me: 027 xxxxxxx

 

*some fiddling at the PC, hands over new SIM packet*

 

Spark: Cool, all done. That'll be $5.

 

Sure enough, an hour or two later, the new SIM was up and running, and the old one was no more.

 

There was no check against any of my details, or even that I did in fact have the original SIM at all. I could've said any number under the sun, or less maliciously, the number may have been keyed incorrectly.

 

Now I am on prepaid so perhaps there would be a more robust check for an on account customer/number (they did ask if I was prepaid or account, to be fair), however I still feel some basic level of verification is definitely needed here. I've had my number for over 10 years so I'm not sure what specific details Spark will have on file, but it seems all too easy to go in and hijack some unsuspecting victims number (at least if they are a prepaid customer!).

 

I can understand perhaps the 'burner' nature of short term prepaid users, however with the semi-recent (and very attractive) monthly prepaid packs, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has stuck with prepaid for years.

 

Historically, at worst this would 'just' be grabbing someones phone number; today, we're potentially talking bank account access, and all manner of online accounts.

 

Has anyone else experienced this? Is this the standard Spark procedure for this sort of request?

 

 


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xpd

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  #1536318 20-Apr-2016 10:12
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I've had it with Vodafone and 2D - sometimes you get asked for ID/verification, but more often than not, nothing asked.

 

 





       Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

 

                      LinkTree

 

 

 




  #1536325 20-Apr-2016 10:16
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I don't think that is the usual process. 

 

I recently had done this for someone and they have asked a Photo Identification and the person said the only acceptable photo identification is a Drivers License or a Passport. 

 

 

 

So, my guess is the person doing the swap was not aware of the process or missed it somehow. 

 

 


jonb
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  #1536327 20-Apr-2016 10:18
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Had same experience at 2degrees store also.




timmmay
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  #1536340 20-Apr-2016 10:26
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Anyone know the name and phone number of the Spark CEO?


wellygary
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  #1536391 20-Apr-2016 10:48
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timmmay:

 

Anyone know the name and phone number of the Spark CEO?

 

 

No idea,

 

but Details for people like the Head of Corporate Comms are in places like this

 

https://nzx.com/companies/SPK/announcements/280837


richms
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  #1536431 20-Apr-2016 11:47
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Yup, totally absurd how easy it is to move over to a new sim.

 

A phone bill has all the details you need to initiate a port to another provider on them, so if instore fails and you can get hold of someones account number then just get a $5 2 degrees sim, log in, and port to that, then you can 2 factor to your hearts content as someone else.

 

That is why I dont really trust SMS 2 factor as a second factor. So more like 1.5 factor.





Richard rich.ms

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  #1536509 20-Apr-2016 12:36
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Had the same with vodafone :) Even more, dude make some mistake and I've got somebody's else number. I didn't notice until strange people started calling me and ask for some Bob :) Then checked and yeap - I had different than my number, and looks like unlucky Bob sim was unregistered.


BarTender
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  #1536779 20-Apr-2016 15:48
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It different between prepaid and postpaid.

Prepaid there is no easy way to validate apart from pulling the sim.

With postpaid you should have been asked for your name and probably address. As that's what I was asked for last time I did a sim swap.

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