A new form of slamming - Affordable Connectivity Program

Internet access discussion, including Fusion, IP Broadband, and Gigabit Fiber!
6 posts Page 1 of 1
by miltonkleim » Thu Dec 01, 2022 1:56 pm
Hello Dane and Staff!

I wanted to bring to your attention a problem that has now occurred twice in just over a month.

On October 31, 2022, I was informed by Sonic that my ACP credit was transferred away from Sonic. I contacted the ACP administrator, USAC. I was informed by them that my benefit was applied to Comcast. This occurred without authorization or input from me. I was able to transfer the benefit back to Sonic.

Today, December 1, 2022, I was again informed by Sonic that my ACP credit was again transferred away from Sonic. I immediately transferred the benefit back to Sonic. I subsequently called the ACP adminstrator, USAC. The person I spoke with there could not determine who had claimed the benefit away from Sonic, as their system only shows current provider - Sonic. She did say "this happens quite often."

This reminds me of the chronic "slamming" with long-distance providers that happened readily decades ago. There needs to be a PIN or some other method involved to block these thefts. The ACP Application ID I submitted the first time this happened was not shared with ANYONE other than Sonic, so it's a mystery how this is happening.

Perhaps Sonic can levy a complaint with someone with authority at USAC to try to ward off this problem.

Thanks!
by dane » Thu Dec 01, 2022 2:33 pm
Wow, that is interesting. I wonder what the motivation is for the other carrier (or their staff/agents) is to do this. And, how do they even get your personal information in order to apply as you and get the code necessary? Jeeze.

I'll ask the team here to dig into it. Clearly, customers on ACP shouldn't experience hassles with their billing and the ACP credit, and neither you nor us should be burdened by having to manage that process. We'll see what we can learn!
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by theyipper » Fri Dec 02, 2022 11:24 pm
by miltonkleim » Sat Dec 03, 2022 1:08 am
I suspect so. It's a big pool of money for those unscrupulous. And USAC, the administrator, doesn't seem to care. I've had multiple phone calls and emails with them. While not using such words, the reaction was like, "don't worry about it."

I've filed an informal complaint with the FCC to investigate.
by dane » Sat Dec 03, 2022 6:57 am
theyipper wrote:That's scary, maybe fraud?
https://broadbandbreakfast.com/2022/09/ ... n-schools/
Interesting. Nuts that the program software would even let an ISP claim the same broadband qualified person at hundreds or thousands of households.

Staff here report:

“This customer is right, I see it happen a lot. I have called USAC myself to help some customers out when I first noticed that this was happening or when some customers called in to complain.

USAC was not any help, they can't see who transfers it or why it continues to happen to the same person at times. It has caused quite a few escalations that I have been involved with. The only thing the USAC recommended is that we tell our customers to treat their Application ID like a password, don't give it to anyone.“

If your application ID, as well as your full name and birthdate all become known to someone, they could use it apparently to engage in some practices to defraud the ACP system.

SO, if this does happen to you, please don’t just give Sonic the old ID again; re-apply to ACP and get a NEW application ID, and then keep that information secure to prevent it occurring again. (Can you think of any way anyone could have obtained that ID, the B12345-67890 number, as well as your full name and birthdate?)

We are working on a log of incidents and our Federal counsel will send a letter to the FCC to try to surface the issues in the program and hopefully get them resolved.
Dane Jasper
Sonic
by miltonkleim » Sat Dec 03, 2022 11:39 pm
dane wrote: SO, if this does happen to you, please don’t just give Sonic the old ID again; re-apply to ACP and get a NEW application ID, and then keep that information secure to prevent it occurring again. (Can you think of any way anyone could have obtained that ID, the B12345-67890 number, as well as your full name and birthdate?)
With all the data mining going on, as well as publicly-accessible sites, my full name and DOB are relatively easy. And the system does insist on full name exactly as entered...e.g., my first and last alone will not work.

The application ID, however, is something only USAC, myself, and Sonic's automated ACP signup system knows! When this happened the first time, I had to reapply for the ACP, since the original application had expired. Whoever stole it away this second time either was able to do so without the application ID, or, there is some nefarious "inside job" kind of thing going on.

dane wrote: We are working on a log of incidents and our Federal counsel will send a letter to the FCC to try to surface the issues in the program and hopefully get them resolved.
Excellent!
6 posts Page 1 of 1

Who is online

In total there are 33 users online :: 1 registered, 0 hidden and 32 guests (based on users active over the past 5 minutes)
Most users ever online was 999 on Mon May 10, 2021 1:02 am

Users browsing this forum: Semrush [Bot] and 32 guests