Scam Attempt – Discount on Bill

Hi Folks,

I received a call earlier today from what appeared to be a phone number from my area. The caller wanted to offer me a discount on my already heavily discounted plan. Of course, I complained about how bad the reception and service has been lately only for it to be “passed on to their customer service team” in a matter of seconds, before the conversation went back to the discount.

Here’s where it gets interesting. The caller wanted to know my billing information (last bill, and regular bill amount). Shortly after, they hung up promising to call me back.

This is a bit of a PSA from someone who has worked in cybersecurity for over a decade and some signs to spot it.

1. Unknown Number: Rogers does call offering discounts. I’ve got one. However, this was from a 1-866 number, and it showed the caller ID as Rogers, not one of the spoofed numbers appearing to be your area. How do you know? Spoofed or virtual telephony numbers don’t display the +1 before the xxx-xxx-xxxx number. Instead they appear as 1xxx-xxx-xxxx. Seems like they’re unable to get past this. Still, this isn’t enough to trust the caller.

2. Generic Call: Callers don’t have any information on you besides your general location and that you’re a Rogers customer. This can easily be inferred or sourced from open-source intelligence.

3. Do not divulge information: Ask what they know about you, without divulging details. Many a times they don’t have enough about you to accurately confirm they are indeed from the telco.

4. Unnatural Speaking: Not referring to synthesized or AI voice, but someone who hasn’t been in the country or dealt with Canadians regularly, does not speak the way we do. “How are you? Hope you’re well in good health.” – yeah, that doesn’t fly. I’m not going to mention accent, given we do have people who have emigrated and in sales jobs here.

5. Ask for Proof: Ask if they can send you an email (without divulging your email address). Often this falls flat. In the off chance they do send, check the sender domain to ensure no typos, errors, lookalikes, etc.

6. Call back: Unfortunately hanging up and calling Rogers is likely your best option, but it also means you won’t get legitimate retention deals through their inbound customer care team like I have in the past. Another way to confirm legitimacy is to ask them to place a note on their account and you call the legitimate line yourself (verified through other means). Having worked in this environment before, I can bet a Fifty both inbound and outbound teams use the same CRM/customer relationship management system to manage your account(s).

Now, while I’m not familiar with the self-service process in Rogers, based on the questions they ask – last paid bill amount, full name, and postal code, this is possibly an attempt to reset or recover your account. Either online or on the phone, I’m not sure but I have in the past created similar processes to verify callers (never using information that’s either publicly available or can be inferred). Why? Best guess is personal information that can be gained from your account, but I’m not entirely certain given unfamiliarity to Rogers and their other products offered. Perhaps to open a credit card? Perhaps to perpetrate further deceit? Not sure. Be wary!

TL;DR: If someone calls you offering discounts, spot and verify a possibly spoofed phone number, and never divulge any information.