Customer Awareness

What Is It: Cellphone trafficking is an illegal activity that involves:

• The unlocking and sale of prepaid devices by an unauthorized seller
• Trafficking of passwords/unlock codes that are not requested through approved channels
• The use of counterfeit packages (with our logos) without our approval

We continuously work with our Authorized Retailers and our own stores to identify suspicious activity and act where needed.

What should you do:

• Be cautious about purchasing devices that don't come in original packaging or don't include typical instructions and warranties.
• If you suspect fraud, check device and service prices online before purchasing. Fraudsters often trick customers into thinking they are purchasing devices from Cricket and charge them an inflated cost.
• If you suspect that someone is engaging in cellphone trafficking activities, please contact law enforcement immediately.

What Is It: Scammers call pretending to be from a government agency like the IRS or a company. They demand immediate payment or threaten to have you arrested.

What You Should Do: Do not engage these callers - hang up immediately. If you think this could have been real, call the entity’s phone number found from a trusted source. Do not call back to the number that called you or which is displayed on the Caller ID.

For the IRS-related scam:

• Refer to the following link for more information: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-Repeats-Warning-about-Phone-Scams
• Refer to the following link to report the scam to the Treasury Inspector General's Office: http://www.treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml

What Is It: Someone claiming to be a computer technician calls to offer a security scan or says they detected a virus on your computer. The caller wants access to your computer. He or she gives you a website to go to. It’s a fake and gives the bad guy control of your computer and everything on it.

What You Should Do: Never provide remote access to your computer under these circumstances. Only allow remote access if you initiated the session through a verified company.

In all cases, never engage such services without first verifying that the company is genuine. Refer to the "Social Engineering" section below as well as the following FTC link: http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0346-tech-support-scams.

What Is It: The typical scenario is that you receive a phone call, text message, or email enticing you to visit a website that appears to have an affiliation with Cricket or another company. In the case of a fake Cricket website, the enticement is generally the promise of a substantial bill discount or a gift card. They hope to trick you into sharing your personal information.

What You Should Do: Ignore these messages. Never provide account or personal information unless you are sure of the website. If the email or text contains a telephone number, do not call the number. It is just another part of the scam.

If you are a victim of phishing, you should file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at www.IC3.gov. For more information, you can access the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center website using this link; http://www.IC3.gov/media/default.aspx and refer to the press release Phishing Attacks On Telecommunication Customers Resulting In Account Takeovers Continue dated April 28, 2014.

What Is It: This is an extortion scheme by abusive callers claiming to be debt collectors. It targets primarily businesses, some of which have been emergency service agencies, located in the United States. The supposed debt collectors have accurate data about the victims, including Social Security numbers, dates of birth, addresses, employer information, bank account numbers, and the names and telephone numbers of relatives and friends. How the fraudsters obtained the personal information varies, but in some cases, the victims completed online applications for loans or credit cards.

The supposed debt collectors relentlessly call the contact business phone of the victim concerning a defaulted loan --- in most cases, a payday loan--- stating the victim must repay this loan to avoid legal consequences. The callers claim to be representatives of the FBI, Federal Legislative Department, various law firms, or other legitimate-sounding agencies. Perpetrators of this scam also use other coercion techniques, including abusive language, or threats of bodily harm or arrest, to get the victims to send money, usually by Western Union, Money Gram or Green Dot cards.

If the victim does not send a payment, the debt collector launches a TDOS (Telephony Denial of Service) attack at the victim's workplace (TDOS involves a very high number of non-stop successive calls that prevents the business from receiving and responding to legitimate calls). In some cases, the victim's other contact numbers -- such as residential, wireless, etc. -- are also targeted for TDOS. The offenders have sophisticated equipment that allows them to commit the TDOS attack and also allows them to spoof the originating numbers, making it very difficult to stop the attack. The supposed debt collectors are typically located in India and have no fear of U.S.-based law enforcement.

What You Should Do: Do not engage these callers. Hhang up immediately and report the scam to Cricket Customer Support at 1-800-CRICKET (1-800-274-2538). File a complaint at www.IC3.gov.

What Is It: Your phone rings one time. The number may look like a local call, because fraudsters can mask, or spoof, the real number. If you call back to see who called, you may be charged a fee. Many times these calls are placed from an international number which will result in you being charged international rates.

What You Should Do: Do not answer calls from numbers you do not recognize and do not ‘call back’ and return the call. This includes unknown numbers that send text messages. Do not call the number to ask what the text meant. If you have been victimized by this scam, file a complaint at www.ftc.govand www.IC3.gov.

Refer to the following link for additional information: http://www.IC3.gov/media/2014/140213.aspx.

What Is it: In this scam, someone pretending to be from Cricket calls you with a tremendous discount offer on your service if you prepay for a period of time outside of your normal contract. These fraudsters usually ask you to make payment via a pre-paid credit card or retail gift card, and may provide you with a toll free call back number to complete the transaction.

What you should do: Hang up immediately. Confirm the offer is valid by contacting the company directly. If your account does not have PIN security activated, we recommend you turn on your Account PIN for added security.

What Is It: Social engineering is when someone manipulates you into performing certain action or divulging confidential information. Social engineers employ many approaches to this - some of the more prominent techniques include:

• Call or email from someone pretending to represent a legitimate company you might normally do business with. Caller asks for your account information (SSN, passwords, credit card numbers) "to verify" your account.
• Call from a supposed court employee regarding jury duty - caller requests personal information under threat of fine or prosecution.

What You Should Do: Never provide account information to these callers. Hang up and call the phone number on your account statement, in the phone book, or on the company's or government agency's website to find out if the entity that supposedly contacted you actually needs the requested information from you. Contact Cricket at 1-800-CRICKET (1-800-274-2538), to report such activity. Also, file a complaint at www.IC3.gov.

What Is It: Scammers can change the number which appears on Caller ID to trick you. They may then ask for personal or account information.

What You Should Do: Do not give out personal information on an incoming call. And don’t try to outsmart the bad guy by intentionally giving out wrong information. Just hang up and report it to the company or agency that supposedly contacted you. Call the entity’s phone number found from a trusted source. In any case of spoofing, file a complaint at www.IC3.gov.