‘I feel so bad and so trapped’: Rogers customer falls victim to sophisticated delivery scam

The B.C. resident says back in February, she signed up for a new device through her Rogers app and added a new phone line to her account.

A Rogers customer is speaking out after falling victim to a sophisticated delivery scam impersonating the telecom provider. “He had full access to my information. For this reason, I never questioned him and I never doubted that he was a Rogers employee,” said Shamim Rahimi.

The B.C. resident says back in February, she signed up for a new device through her Rogers app and added a new phone line to her account. She says after placing that order, a Rogers representative called her that same day to confirm and verify the order. However, Rahimi says she received another call the next day from someone claiming they were a Rogers representative informing her the new device she had just ordered would be delayed because the colour she requested was temporarily out of stock.

When the phone was eventually shipped, Rahimi says the caller knew when the phone was scheduled to arrive. “He knew even before me that the phone arrived at my place,” Rahimi told Consumer Matters. When Rahimi received her new device, the calls continued.

She says that same caller had access to her contract and billing details, eventually convincing her to courier the phone back to Rogers so both her phone numbers could be combined under one account to qualify her for a special loyalty offer. Rahimi says she was emailed a prepaid UPS shipping label. She dropped off the phone at the UPS store, all the while thinking she was sending the phone back to Rogers.

Get breaking National news However, after talking with a trusted family member, she became concerned. Rahimi says she contacted Rogers to open a fraud investigation and filed a police report. Still, Rahimi says Rogers rejected her claim.

The telecom giant stated it was outside the scope of its fraud management support team and that “Any actions taken with the device after purchase are not the responsibility of Rogers.” Still, Rahimi says she wants to know how someone had access to her personal information. “How they cannot protect even my information?” said Rahimi.

Rogers told Consumer Matters there was no record of Rahimi’s Rogers account being breached and stated in part: “...we actively share information on how to stay protected against fraudulent activity, including return scams targeting consumers globally and across industries. We use a variety of ways to educate our customers, including shipping notification emails, hand-outs in device shipment boxes and on our website which outlines instructions on how and where customers can return their devices to us.” - Calgary area ‘very uniquely situated’ for study of hailstorms, says researcher - Close to 800,000 have applied for $100 rebate, payments coming: Alberta’s Smith - RBC agrees to $45M class-action settlement over mutual fund fees - Flooding damage closes Telus World of Science for months, 68% of staff laid off Rogers also told Consumer Matters the shipping box that contained the device Rahimi ordered included a physical paper insert warning about fraudsters impersonating Rogers employees and confirmed Rahimi had shipped the package to a non-Rogers address in Mississauga, Ontario.

Cybersecurity expert and founder of Canada’s KnowledgeFlow Cybersafety Foundation, Claudiu Popa, says the first step to avoid being scammed is to contact your provider directly using the official number on your monthly statement. “You need to call them at a number that you trust – at a Rogers number that you trust and verify they exist on their payroll,” said Popa. She adds it’s very important for both companies and for individuals to continue to report these types of scams as much as possible.

“Last year we know that $700 million in fraudulent losses have been reported to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, but the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre also says in their fine print that only up to five per cent of losses are reported,” said Popa. “It’s very important for people to share and let law enforcement know,” he added. Rogers says it’s crediting Rahimi for her wireless services during its fraud investigation.

However, she’s still left paying hundreds of dollars for a phone that ended up in the hands of a fraudster. “I feel so bad and so trapped,” said Rahimi.