Normally, I would consider this a far-fetched fantasy, but after seeing similar fraud at Wells Fargo as a result of their incentive programs, nothing would surprise me.
There was a term for it. I think it was "slamming" but if that's the wrong word, it was something like that.
Because of it, the alt providers had to hire outside verifiers, who literally have no stake in whether the sale goes through or not, to come on the line immediately after any customer signs on, to verify their information and that they really do want the service and were not tricked or coerced into it.
Everyone who worked as a verifier that I knew said the same thing: they had to cancel a LOT of new accounts because of this "slamming." The most affected were the elderly, and people with thick accents.
At this time, ONLY Ma Bell could provide local service. Thankfully all that is well behind us now, and whatever company provides your local service also provides your LD (unless you use a discount card, of course). Of course there is an all out war between the major providers buying out the smaller "discount" providers, but it is still infinitely better than what we had before then. And with cell phones, it's a completely moot point.
He said, “If the thief stole $50, the bank would make it up to keep you as a happy customer. If it was $50,000, well, the bank doesn’t want you as a customer that much.”
The leaks from corporations, social media, webmail and cloud storage will keep piling up; bad actors will increasingly cross-reference them. Cheaper storage, faster network speeds, and more capable AI (eg: to identify faces) will exacerbate the problem.
It's a disaster looming over our near future.
