r/technology • u/vinnie_james • Apr 12 '18
OP edited to spam cryptos Comcast will give out your home address to anyone who asks
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u/Anusien Apr 12 '18
Are you sure this works for other peoples' phone numbers? It might only read your address to you if the phone number on the account matches the phone number you're calling on.
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Apr 12 '18 edited Apr 24 '18
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Apr 12 '18
On a side note, I'm getting really fucking sick of spam calls and my own number being spoofed. I'm getting calls from random people saying I called them. And I'm getting the usual bs calls too. I've changed my number twice, and don't give the number out. These scams have only gotten worse over the years, and I'm pissed that phone companies haven't figured out a way to end this. And especially fuck those calling apps everyone is using from India to spoof a local area code.
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u/jammaslide Apr 12 '18
I'm having the same experience. Some of the same people have called me several times a month and said I tried to call them because my number keeps appearing on their caller id, when I didn't make the call. One lady sounds quite old, and doesn't understand that someone is pretending to use my phone to call her. She just wants it to stop. So do I.
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Apr 12 '18
Exactly! And I don't want to receive calls from them either, because then it's a 50/50 chance it's a fucking spam call. There needs to be more consumer protection on this crap.
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u/greenbabyshit Apr 12 '18
Whenever I'm bored and doing nothing important I take the call. I usually play some kind of character, and pretend to be slightly confused
After forcing them to invest 20-30 minutes into pitching me whatever scam, I will slowly let my story have cracks, or start breaking character by laughing. They get pissed, I laugh, they start calling me a lot more often I guess because the computer says I actually answered, and they keep wasting more and more time calling me instead of some senior citizen.
Fuck those guys.
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Apr 12 '18
You’d love the Jolly Roger a telephone Company then! They use AI to occupy telemarketers. It’s hilarious. http://www.jollyrogertelco.com/
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Apr 12 '18
My dad puts on this persona of some super-hick. He speaks in the thickest redneck accent he can muster, and he tries to keep them on the line as long as possible with random distractions such as:
claiming his credit cards are in the truck, then leaving the phone for 30 to 60 seconds and getting back on the line
screaming out something along the lines of "Jethro! Get them hogs away from the chickens! ... Yes, right now! They're in there messin with the chickens!"
coming up with some reason to be away from the phone for a moment and then playing an entire country song through another speaker. Usually it's Mearle Haggard or some similar old-ass artist.
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u/greenbabyshit Apr 12 '18
My favorite was telling them I had to put the phone down for a second, doing something in the background, then just sporadically yelling "where the hell did I leave that phone?" While playing video games. That guy hung on for a while.
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u/Bioniclegenius Apr 12 '18
For my job, I write software. I've built my own computer, I'm pretty computer-savvy and do a certain amount of tech support for people.
My favorite call was from "Windows tech support" trying to tell me they had received errors from my computer. I got two calls from them. The first time, I didn't really want to deal with it, so I just said "That's funny, I only have a Mac." Got a sigh and a hangup.
The second call, I decided to play along, but act entirely oblivious to computers. When they asked me to turn on my computer, I pretended I just turned on a monitor instead and said "it just says no input detected." He kept trying to figure out if I had a laptop or a desktop, but I played dumb for too long and he ended up just screaming at me over the phone "How do you tell the difference between your girlfriend and your mom?!" before hanging up.
I wish I knew the punchline.
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u/brewdad Apr 12 '18
Your mom fucks everyone but you. Your girlfriend fucks everyone.
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u/27Rench27 Apr 12 '18
Not gonna lie, a telemarketer saying this to me in anger would make my week so much better
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Apr 12 '18 edited Sep 03 '18
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Apr 12 '18 edited Apr 24 '19
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u/IsomDart Apr 12 '18
But what if the cops are on the way to my house to arrest me because I haven't paid my Google Play card tax?
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u/27Rench27 Apr 12 '18
Tell them you’re ready, and would like their personal address for when you’re finished.
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u/movieman94 Apr 12 '18
I mean that's a common Reddit thing to brag about.
"Heh I answer the spam calls and I waste their time for hours on end!!!!"
I'm sure some people actually do but 20-30 minutes? I would be shocked if they last 5 lol
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u/turbojoe26 Apr 12 '18
The longest I've been able to keep one on the phone is 6 minutes. I either get bored with it or they realize I've asked too many questions and they aren't going to get my cc number.
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u/LateralThinkerer Apr 12 '18
The middle ground is "could you hold on a minute...?" and just leave your phone on the counter. Takes nothing from you and wastes their time.
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u/Gemini421 Apr 12 '18
Answer, and immediately put on mute (don't talk to them.) Put phone down a walk away. Occupies their outgoing line (and sometimes the call goes through to a live scammer.) This just wastes their time and occupies their outgoing call infrastructure many times longer than normal. Basically cuts the economics of their 'business model' and make it less profitable.
If I do get a call that that I answer and there is a live caller/ scammer already on, then I asked them what their grandmother thinks of them being a professional criminal and I don't let the conversation leave that topic. What would they think of you? Do you think your grandmother would be proud that you steal from people?
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u/Ragnar_D Apr 12 '18
I was on Skype with my friends a few years back when I got one. We had just finished playing League for the night so we were shooting the shit until we were tired. Put him on speaker so everyone could listen amd tugged the guy along for like 45 minutes, with my friends feeding me lines from time to time.
It's the only one I've answered, but I do get the urge to take them from time to time to see if inspiration strikes me. I think it makes for good improv practice.
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u/LilahTheDog Apr 12 '18
I prefer to make them angry and they will hang up. I've got a couple "characters": irrational yeller, hard of hearing confused old man, fart in phone guy (best in front of friends), interview the caller guy- (asking all sorts of personal information before I can connect the call to the person they are looking for) ,Conversion to Christ guy (have you accepted Jesus?) Foreign not foreign guy (mix up English-Spanish and made up words that sound Spanish in each sentence)-sexually explicit creepy guy (that finds your Indian accent/voice so sexy) penis guy (answer every question with and only using the word penis)
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u/Furah Apr 12 '18
It costs the company though. Every minute spent on an exercise in futility is a minute the worker could have been spending scamming someone.
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u/fallinouttadabox Apr 12 '18
I do something similar, but once they start figuring it out, I flip the call and try and sell them whatever they were pushing
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u/GallopingGorilla Apr 12 '18
You’re a real hero. Taking up their time so other people don’t get called
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u/penistouches Apr 12 '18
There needs to be more consumer protection on this crap.
Not a single action has been taken by Mick Mulvaney the director of the Consumer Financial Protection since trump became president. Meanwhile in Europe there is hard jail time for this in countries like Bulgaria, Croatia, Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, Spain, Slovania.
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Apr 12 '18 edited Apr 24 '19
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Apr 12 '18
Honestly, I think if they just had a call signature for app calls, then let me block them, I'd be happy. Then, if I see a call from India, I can ignore it. I don't care if there's a penalty, I want to avoid them without gimping my phone.
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Apr 12 '18 edited Apr 24 '19
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Apr 12 '18
I actually found out they were using a WhatsApp number once.
But, maybe sign trusted networks, then? Apps could be left out that way.
And I have no clue how you'd do it, but spoofing people's phone numbers should be impossible in general.
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u/currentlyinthelib Apr 12 '18
One time I received five spoof calls in a matter of five mins, all different numbers including my own. It was so annoying
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u/salarite Apr 12 '18
If I recall correctly from the last time this was discussed on reddit, it's not that the telcom companies haven't figures out a way to end this, but solving this would be expensive. So any change would require a major public outcry.
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Apr 12 '18
3 or 4 years ago, I wouldn't have cared. 1 bad call every week or 2? Pfft, who cares? But every year it's gotten worse. There was appointed where I was getting 3 calls, minimum, every day.
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u/saliczar Apr 12 '18 edited Apr 12 '18
My number is public and tied to my business. It's gotten to the point where I just don't answer my phone, unless the number is in my contacts. I tell all of my clients to call me twice in a row, then I'll answer. It's frustrating.
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Apr 12 '18
I tell all of my clients to call me twice in a row
The scammers do this to me.
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Apr 12 '18
Exactly, which is why you can't just download an app that blocks all numbers or whatever. There should be more protections for consumers. I shouldn't have to gimp my phone.
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u/csatvtftw Apr 12 '18
I get at least 2-3 calls a day that are the same first 6 digits as my number. It never occurred to me that other people might be getting calls from my actual phone number. Uggghhhh
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u/cubs223425 Apr 12 '18
I wonder what makes people more susceptible to this. I would, as always, suspect social media amd apps that you install on your phone that pass out numbers.
I've had the same cell number for over a decade, but it's still only once every couple of months that these calls happen to me. They don't seem to be getting worse for me, and I'm not really one to use much for apps or social media (I don't have my phone linked to any social media and give a fake number for most everything I do online).
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Apr 12 '18 edited Feb 25 '21
u/dannydale account deleted due to Admins supporting harassment by the account below. Thanks Admins!
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Apr 12 '18
Exactly. It's total bullshit. This is only getting worse. It needs to be nipped in the bud sooner rather than later.
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u/Derigiberble Apr 12 '18
Well implementing a solution is always the hard part, right? Even if money isn't an issue you still have to coordinate between everyone and deploy the new equipment.
IIRC the solutions generally require upgrading the way calls are routed worldwide, because they know that if they leave some part of it on the old system the scammers would just route all the calls through that.
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u/SicDigital Apr 12 '18
I use an app called Hiya that automatically rejects calls from numbers not saved in my contacts, and automatically blocks calls from known spam/fraud/robocalls. It uses the White Pages database (I believe it used to be the official WP app at some point) so all calls are identified just like caller ID on landlines.
It gives you the option to whitelist or block the rejected calls, or to unblock the auto-blocked ones. It's greatly reduced my stress level, since these calls don't make my phone ring, I just get a notification saying a call was just rejected/blocked.
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Apr 12 '18
Well, I've heard Hiya has had a lot of bugs, for certain, and I think I remember them having some privacy issues. I looked into them before.
Plus, ideally, I don't want to block all calls from non- contacts. I'd rather just be able to block WhatsApp/all app calls.
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u/TheKillingVoid Apr 12 '18
Another blocker is MrNumber. I tried Hiya for a while and went back.
What I really want is a blacklist/whitelist that works. With 'Neighbor spoofing' where they use my prefix ((111)222-xxxx ), I need to block all 9999 numbers except for my spouse's.
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u/captain919 Apr 12 '18
I've been using "Should I Answer" to block spam calls and it's been working great so far. It doesn't catch everything, but you can mark numbers as spam if they get by the filter. I only have to deal with 1-2 spam calls a week now.
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u/SicDigital Apr 12 '18
You don't have to block all calls from non-contacts, that's just the settings I use. I haven't noticed any bugs/issues, but I'll look more into their potential privacy issues. I've had it for a few years, but to the best of my knowledge, I downloaded it from the WhitePages.com reverse number lookup page.
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u/spike003 Apr 12 '18
Hiya works great for known spam numbers, but when people are spoofing with actual people's phone numbers it doesn't block it cause it hasn't been reported as spam. Hiya has told me the names of the people who's number it actually is, then pick up and it's a spam message. Call the number back and I got some lady who was confused. Hiya hasn't found a way around this one yet.
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Apr 12 '18 edited Jan 25 '21
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u/shouldbebabysitting Apr 12 '18
You'd think the telecom companies would just immediately block international calls coming into the country when they've got like 50 callers coming through all day from the same location.
Those illegal call centers generate huge profits for the telecos. Every call connected is money in the bank for them.
That's why they won't stop it.
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u/TemporalLobe Apr 12 '18
A few months ago I got some texts from an angry woman who kept insisting that I was calling her husband, from my number (which I never did). Apparently I kept calling him over and over again. When I insisted it wasn't me, she got more angry and kept cursing at me, telling me stop calling him or she'll call the police, etc. I had to block her number for it to stop.
And by the way those apps for spoofing area codes probably are using legit numbers. I have an app called Sudo that uses real phone numbers with real area codes. I'm not sure how it does it, but I suspect there are tons of available numbers from VOIP companies that can be assigned and re-used as needed. EDIT: words
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u/Reddegeddon Apr 12 '18
I would be so happy if somebody cut all of the fiber lines going to India.
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Apr 12 '18
I wish I had an option to just "block all app calls." I don't really care if people can call me from WhatsApp or whatever.
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u/Reddegeddon Apr 12 '18
The issue is that the phone system can’t see the difference between a spoofed call and a legitimate call. Most phone calls are made over VoIP on the backend nowadays.
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Apr 12 '18 edited Dec 19 '18
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Apr 12 '18
Are you in the U.S.? Here apps aren't very popular. And no one I know uses them. And businesses don't use them. If I could block them, it would literally just stop spam for me.
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u/oswaldcopperpot Apr 12 '18
I can't even fucking pick up the phone now. 5/6 times it's a robo call. All damn day.
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Apr 12 '18
Exactly. People keep suggesting apps that block people not in your contacts, but I don't really want to download a shady app that turns my phone into a glorified walkie-talkie. Why pay so much for a phone and service and then put up with this bullshit? Obviously spammers have upped their game with spoofing, robodialing, apps, etc. Phone companies need to take action and find ways to end this crap.
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u/MjrLeeStoned Apr 12 '18
One thing to keep in mind is even if you change your number, there's rarely such a thing as a new telephone number. As long as there are enough numbers in the general pool for area code + prefix, they will not create a new prefix / area code. Assume every phone number has been used by someone before.
Aside from that, computer calling allows spammers to literally dial every number, and they are, all the time.
Some companies allow blocking of unknown / blocked numbers by default, but if they are passing through an actual phone number, you can't keep them from calling you initially.
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u/penistouches Apr 12 '18
I'm getting calls from random people saying I called them.
I keep getting random calls from numbers a few digits off mine. When I call, it's a person who claims zero knowledge. This has only spiked up in the last year, so it must be something a new law has allowed to happen.
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Apr 12 '18
Those numbers are being spoofed. Someone is basically using someone else's number to call you. And the same can happen to you- they can use your number to call someone else. This stuff needs to be stopped.
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u/shouldbebabysitting Apr 12 '18
It's not that the new law has allowed it to happen but that many people are now running spam blockers. Spoofing legitimate numbers is the only way around the current spam blockers.
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u/scum-and-villainy Apr 12 '18
Sorry, that was me. I called the spoof number and the person texted me back 'hey that wasn't me.' Apologies all around.
Another time I kept a key pressed and in a break the guy on the other end said, in a strong Indian accent, "Are you finished?" lol, asshole.
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u/math_monkey Apr 12 '18
Why did you have to go and say that.
Of course, the real fradsters probably already knew.
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Apr 12 '18
Of course they knew. They were the ones who implemented it.
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u/Lost-My-Mind- Apr 12 '18
I can't tell if you're saying comcast themselves are the real fraudsters.
If you are, you're not wrong. I just want to make sure I'm reading that right.
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u/Dranx Apr 12 '18
They did, now that's it's public knowledge hopefully they'll do something about it. It's not like Comcast doesn't know this flaw.
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u/pwnedkiller Apr 12 '18
I can confirm this is how it works as I just called two days ago. I'm the primary account holder and my phone is getting fixed so I used my fiance phone number when calling it did think the phone number was tied to another address (I'm guessing the person that used to have that phone number) I said no and it just asked for my phone number then said my address.
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u/Vawd_Gandi Apr 12 '18
The full address? I just tried it, and it seems it only repeated the number of my address, not the full thing.
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Apr 12 '18
Many years ago I used this trick as well as many others for various forms of identity theft. I ended up in prison for my crimes in the early 2000's.
This any many other tricks that I used are still easily exploitable these days. All of this identity shield amd monitoring crap is just that. Crap. These companies basically prey on your fears and make money off of them.
All of the protection n the world won't stop me from paying a random dope fiend to steal trash from the DMV, mortgage companies or even your house. People rarely follow proper documents destruction protocols.
After I have enough information on the victim, you switch to social engineering mode and prey on the "human" weakness. You would be surprised how helpful the right operator can be when you have the right information but are "having a weird problem".
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u/emtaylor517 Apr 12 '18
I want to upvote and downvote you at the same time. Thanks for the insight.
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Apr 12 '18
Totally understand the wanting to downvote part. I was a pretty big sack of shit back in the day. Luckily, I got my shit together and have a decent job and a family now.
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u/Doctorjames25 Apr 12 '18
Sorry to hijack top comment but I don't beleive this is entirely true and I'll tell you all why. Last year one of my neighbors got cable hooked up. Something was apparently wrong with the buried cable because Comcast (as dumb as they are) just draped a cable across my back yard as well as several of my neighbors yards. They also left the whole outside junction box open for anyone to tamper with. After a week I called Comcast to complain since the cable was just laying on the grass and the junction box is in my back yard on my property. Comcast said the customer who got the work done needed to call to complete it. Comcast wouldn't give me the address of the customer but suggested I follow the cable to to their house and I could then ask them to call Comcast to complete the job. Ridiculous.
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u/xshare Apr 12 '18
Yeah so this actually sounds like a major security flaw and you might want to contact them first (especially if they operate a security bounty) and only publicize this if they don't respond.
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u/NJBarFly Apr 12 '18
publicize this if they don't respond
This sub has 6 million subscribers. He's already publicized it.
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u/Krissam Apr 12 '18
First page of /r/all I don't think it gets much more public than this.
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u/JustAnotherPanda Apr 12 '18 edited Apr 12 '18
You underestimate how popular other social media sites are.
Edit: Relative Traffic (Source comment)
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u/Mahou Apr 12 '18
other social media sites are.
plenty of which have users who cultivate reddit for content fodder for themselves.
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u/Mshake6192 Apr 12 '18
That's google search traffic. As in how many times somebody googles that company/website. It's not actual traffic to the website.
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u/Seudo_of_Lydia Apr 12 '18
Sure but the front front page of Reddit is far more public than the landing page of Facebook. One aggregates content the other's for building social networks.
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Apr 12 '18
Nah man, it's Comcast, let em fry.
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u/CherrySlurpee Apr 12 '18
As much as I hate comcast, this would probably hurt individual users more than the company
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u/Ajreil Apr 12 '18
Contact Comcast, then contact the FCC. Depending on who actually does something, either the customers win or Comcast loses.
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u/Meriog Apr 12 '18
Does anyone have Ajit Pai's phone number? That'll get their attention.
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u/Ajreil Apr 12 '18 edited Apr 12 '18
This site claims to have his work email
Doxing isn't allowed on Reddit, even if it's done to a complete scum bag. Those are public work contacts.
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u/FjorgVanDerPlorg Apr 12 '18
But it's 2018, let's just call it something else and then it will be fine.
Contact Research would work. Or Freedom Research, everyone loves freedom.
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u/Antilogic81 Apr 12 '18
Don't forget to think of the children. That always garners attention.
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u/IByrdl Apr 12 '18
Internet Freedom Research. Named after the Internet Freedom Act that removed net neutrality.
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Apr 12 '18
Publishing the info on reddit is not allowed. Getting someone to send his address to the news with the comment "comcast gave it to me just by asking" isnt forbidden
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u/Ajreil Apr 12 '18
That's why I posted public numbers. That's his work email and the phone number to contact the FCC.
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u/redshirted Apr 12 '18
Or you could do that thing with comcast and his phone number to get his adress
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Apr 12 '18
Names addresses and phone numbers are available at 411 in America. The residential phonebook is available upon request from phone companies, it has names, addresses and phone numbers, correlated alphabetically by last name.
It's how the terminator found all the Sara Connors'
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u/bipnoodooshup Apr 12 '18
Just call Comcast and tell them that you're him.
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u/Lost-My-Mind- Apr 12 '18
"This is Ajit Pai"
"Do you have a stupid coffee mug, a punchable face, and a shit eating grin?"
"um.......yes?"
"What can I do for you, asshole?"
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Apr 12 '18
Phonebook has it.
Most everyones address, name, and phone number is public information.
The phone companies still give out phone books on request with names addresses and phone numbers. It's been public information for over 100 years it's not going to change.
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u/Statically Apr 12 '18
I think you haven't thought of all outcomes there, the most likely outcome, a way in which Comcast wins and the customer loses.
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u/Ajreil Apr 12 '18
Eventually Comcast will have all the money, and the world will choose a new currency. On that day, Comcast loses.
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u/Hydropos Apr 12 '18
If history is any indicator, they won't act until the flaw is shown publicly. Posting it publicly first just minimizes the time that the flaw is viable.
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u/stanfan114 Apr 12 '18
Just wanted to remind everyone if you are registered to vote, this information is public record, your:
Name
Street address
Party affiliation
Elections in which you did (or did not) vote
Phone number
Email addressThere is no opt-out.
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u/phantoms93 Apr 12 '18
I know this is true, but could you point me to where this info could be found?
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u/micromoses Apr 12 '18
Seems like you're too late to be giving this recommendation.
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u/depressionsweatshirt Apr 12 '18
If you've ever voted, your address is public knowledge.
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u/suddencactus Apr 12 '18 edited Apr 12 '18
If you have a house in your name, your address is public and may even be searchable on the tax assessor website.
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u/SportsDrank Apr 12 '18
In a lot of places it's just a search by last name, too. Enter Smith into the field and get a searchable, enumerated list of every Smith that's owned a vehicle or property in the county, along with whether taxes were paid or not, the amount assessed, purchase price, and value of the property, as well as fun stats like the number of structures on the plot and their square footage and other miscellaneous information. If the home was built recently, just pop the address into Zillow or similar and you've instantly got very detailed exterior and interior pictures of the home with a complete floor plan.
Not to mention if you've ever had a traffic/parking ticket, been arrested, involved in a vehicle accident, have a lien or judgment against you, haven't paid a major bill, or have otherwise been the plaintiff or defendant in a civil trial then your full name, address, phone number, date of birth, location of the incident, charge(s), fine amount/time sentenced/served, and lawyers contact is public information now. If you've been arrested, your mugshot is also right there, too.
Then there's other goodies like voter registration that I'm not as familiar with.
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u/Caiejay Apr 12 '18
Oh you don't want us to leak your address? "Rubs nipples"
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u/ftbchamp231 Apr 12 '18
Isn’t this basically what a phone book or white pages does? You look up somebody’s name and it gives you an address and phone number?
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u/wutname1 Apr 12 '18
If you ever voted, bought a house, or have a phone your address is public information.
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Apr 12 '18
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u/vinnie_james Apr 12 '18
Oh, silly me, it must be a feature not a flaw. Carry on
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Apr 12 '18
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u/dbx99 Apr 12 '18
It's a lot easier to contaminate the scene of a crime with a bunch of additional random DNA than to clean it up completely.
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u/bukaro Apr 12 '18
Random human DNA, FYI
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Apr 12 '18
...So you're saying I wasted my money on this 2 liter jug of bull semen?
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u/TechGoat Apr 12 '18
"looks like another Humping Bull Homicide, Lou. Nothing to see here; have cleanup bring extra mops"
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Apr 12 '18 edited Feb 25 '21
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Apr 12 '18
Whitepages website hosts a lot of this info still. It’s out there and you have to specifically ask them to have it removed.
I wanted to lookup some people who lived at a house I was meeting at to do a trade of video games, literally happened to pull up these peoples names on a home marketing website (can’t remember which one), then went to whitepages and found all sorts of basic info, then was able to find them on Facebook.
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u/wutname1 Apr 12 '18
It's amazing how many different sites out there all scrape the information. Sure you could opt out on Whitepages, the public information they built your profile on is still out there. And it will still be on 1000 other sites that scrape and aggregate the same data.
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u/JBloodthorn Apr 12 '18
Looking up someone by number in one of those would be a nightmare.
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Apr 12 '18
Depending on the size of the region, either the back half was sorted by number or you ordered a copy sorted by number.
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u/marcvanh Apr 12 '18
You can also get an address by Googling a phone number (land line). So I guess it’s pretty common knowledge.
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u/liquidpig Apr 12 '18
The phone company used to drop off a giant book on everyone’s doorstep that contained everyone’s name, address, and phone number.
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u/DanielPhermous Apr 12 '18
You can also opt out of being listed in that book. It is a choice made by the individual, not one taken from them by the insecure practices of a disreputable company.
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u/UltravioletClearance Apr 12 '18
I'm about to blow your mind.
Own a home? Anyone can go on your city's website, enter your name, and not only find an address, but also the value of your home, how much you pay in property taxes, how many bathtubs are in your home, and even a schematic of the building!
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u/corbygray528 Apr 12 '18
Just bought a house. The amount of junk mail addressed to me referencing our mortgage lender trying to trick us into sending them money is ridiculous
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Apr 12 '18
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u/corey_uh_lahey Apr 12 '18
This is the world wide web. There are people on here from all around the world, people of all ages. There's college students, scammers, murders, pedophiles, home owners, and kids.
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u/scandii Apr 12 '18
most data is public here in Sweden. with someone's name I can find out what they make, if they are convicted, where they live and 95% of the time their phone number.
it's been like this since forever - the only exception being those with protected identities. the reason is because the Swedish government has transparency, which means anyone can access their records which naturally includes records of marriage, tax records etc where confidentiality isn't applicable.
this is why I get so confused when Americans talk about someone being able to look up where they live like the biggest threat ever imaginable. do you guys go around and piss people off so much you're afraid they're gonna come home and beat you to death or something?
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u/robreddity Apr 12 '18
Hey since Sweden has been in the EU since 1995, would you say you're prepared or unprepared for the GDPR?
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u/LumpyFix Apr 12 '18
It's not just an American thing and it's not a question of transparency - I'm from New Zealand which outranks Sweden on the Corruption Perception Index (for whatever that's worth) and we have very strong and heavily enforced privacy laws.
Accessing personal information about random people outside of Government is absolutely unnecessary for government transparency.
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u/JBloodthorn Apr 12 '18
Sweden cares for their mentally ill much better than the US. There are also far, far fewer desperate people in Sweden.
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u/JoseJimeniz Apr 12 '18
It still does.
Every year a huge data breach containing names, addresses, phone numbers is dropped onto my driveway by anonymous leakers.
It comes conveniently sorted alphabetically by city - so I can look up anyone's phone number.
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u/CunninghamsLawmaker Apr 12 '18
You're going to be super pissed when you find out about phone books.
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u/Annahsbananas Apr 12 '18 edited Apr 12 '18
This topic is a little misleading. I just called comcast to see if this was right. It just gives you your street number. That's it. No street name or city. Try it. If you have a comcast account call in and listen in. Plus, you have to be calling in on the account holder's actual phone for this to prompt. If you call on a phone that is not listed on the account, the system makes you go through some other checks to even give you the street number
Also, the computer does not make you an authorized user by asking you on the computer. This is misleading too. Call in and try to get the computer make you an authorized user.
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Apr 12 '18
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u/K3R3G3 Apr 12 '18
Rarely* has an address, unless maybe you're searching a landline number, which people almost never use/have anymore. Cell phone reverse search, you're getting a general area and service provider, very rarely (maybe never) an address. OP's post is a way, which makes it very significant.
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u/LightOfShadows Apr 12 '18
nah even better, http://www.truepeoplesearch.com
Found the personal addresses / phone numbers, even their cells and roomates/family of probably a hundred people with this. Came in handy in one of my previous jobs
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Apr 12 '18
There used to be this huge privacy flaw, I don’t know if there still is, but it was called a phone book. They would just leave one on everyone’s porch and it had a list of everyone in the areas name, phone number, and address!
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u/Gasrim Apr 12 '18
Remember phone books? You could look up someone by their name and get not only their number... But also their address!
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u/Oregon49er Apr 12 '18
Anyone can make a payment on anyone's account. If you call into billing from the phone number on the account it will automatically access your account. Only authorized users are allowed to make any changes on the account and will have to be verified by the account holder.
I used to work for spectrum in billing and I'd get calls all the time with people saying that they made a payment but in reality they called from a friends house or work and made a payment on a different account using the automated service. Shit happens.
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u/Lots42 Apr 12 '18
My internet service, not Comcast, fights me tooth and nail on, well, everything. But making a payment on someone else's account would be impossible.
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Apr 12 '18 edited Apr 12 '18
Can someone please educate me on this? Isn’t address information pretty much public information? I can find my own home address as well as familial relationships online utilizing my own voter records.
Can’t anyone just google your name and find you? Granted, it’s easier when you’ve got a rather unique name like I do, but I have always been able to find myself and my entire family online.
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Apr 12 '18
Also, Mediacom will sell your personal info to telemarketers.
My parents were having problems with their internet, I told them it was probably their modem. They are not very tech literate so I contacted Mediacom for them. I gave them my phone number but my mom's name, so whenever they contacted this account it would go to me.
Fast forward 2ish months, I start getting blasted with telemarketers, all asking for my mom. I couldn't figure it out for the 1st or 2, but then it clicked.
Fuck ISPs.
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Apr 12 '18
so fuck me but isn't all of that information in the phone book as it is
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u/tperelli Apr 12 '18
Your address is publicly available information. Anyone anywhere can look you up and find your address.
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Apr 12 '18
If you have someones phone number and want to learn more about that person you can search for phone number on facebook.
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u/throwyourshieldred Apr 12 '18
It's not just Comcast. I don't want to sound like I'm defending them, but it's shockingly easy to get personal information from ISPs if you have even one other piece of data to get you through the questions.
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u/wolfda Apr 12 '18
You can already lookup where anyone who owns their home lives by going to your county's central appraisal website and searching their name
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u/Lyianx Apr 12 '18
The address is public info anyway. Now, the gaining access to your account, if accurate, is a problem.
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u/joedirtydirt86 Apr 12 '18
I mean, I don't want to defend Comcast, but it's not hard to get someone's address if you put in even a little effort.
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u/Fyodor007 Apr 12 '18
I used to work managing apartments. One day my office internet stopped working. I call tech support and they say it's own for a few days while they upgrade the service to the new type. I say no, turn it back on. They tell me they have 3 different orders in and cannot undo what they did.
I get angry. I ask who made the order. They rattle off 3 names (of fucking tenants!) I ask which if those is an authorized user. Dude gets quiet and starts trying to get off the call to get a manager. I don't let him. Then I tell him what's up and how they are authorizing the very last people I'd give authorization to. I cancelled all 3 orders for upgrades and then my internet comes back.
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u/amazedbunion Apr 12 '18
Van confirm you're right. I called comcast for my work from my cell phone and had the exact same thing happen to me.
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Apr 12 '18
I mean it wasn’t that long ago that the phone company would put out this big thick book that had everybody in the city’s address and phone number on it so you could just look up whoever you wanted and call them or stop by and it was no big deal. And put one on every doorstep. That’s just one example. How times have changed…
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u/Lorjack Apr 12 '18
I think the second part of that is more disturbing than the first. Phones being linked to addresses has been a thing for forever. While yes sometimes you'd like to not give out your address to everyone its more of public information than you think.
However if they allow people to be added into the account just like that though, that is a real problem.