Hacked Video Rental Account

[utopia1]

My account has been hacked since April. I have been charged for movies that I haven't rented. Working with Verizon has been frustrating since they cannot seem to solve the issue. I have employed every defensive ploy suggested by tech support but the hacker has been able to circumnavigate each one. Can this problem be solved?

[mhdennis]

I'm having the same problem.  I started getting charged for movies I havent' ordered in May.  I didn't realize it until this bill because until now it was just one movie a month, I wasn't checking my bill thoroughly, just looking at the total and it seemed right.  But this month it was $50 more than it should have been.  Someone rented 5 movies and added Spanish language to my account.

I called billing.  The first person hung up on me.  The second person was completely rude.  She insisted someone had to press confirm on the remote to order a movie.  Two of the movies were ordered while my family was on vacation hundreds of miles a way.  The house was empty.  I asked her to explain how those were ordered.  She ignored me and insisted someone used the remote and said that was impossible.  Well, I'm here to tell you it's not impossible.  I'm having movies charged to my account when no one is in our house.   That also doesn't explain the Spanish language charge.  I talked to a tech person.  He was very nice, but could not find anything wrong with my boxes and was stumped at how it was happening.  

[mhdennis]

Utopia, 

I did a little more investigating and discovered the rentals were flex view rentals.  I'm not sure how flex view works.  But perhaps your rentals are flex view as well.  Either someone has figured out how to hack people's accounts using flex view, or Verizon has a major billing mixup with the system.  Supposedly you have to authorize devices to use flex view, but I cannot figure out where you do that.

[travisma]

Same thing happened to my account with the Spanish package being added around April.  I just glance at my total and pay, didn't catch the error until June.  Emailed Verizon, and got the same response, impossible to add without numerous steps and button pushes.  They said they would terminate the package but no refunds.  I replied that it's possible my granddaughter hit accept by accident, they still said no refund.  At that point I mentioned they were going to loose an account to Brighthouse for being so stubborn.   I was informed they would give me a 1 time "courtesy" refund, and sent me instructions on how to set up parental controls.

[jumpin68ny]

Your last comment was going to be my suggestion.  You should add parental controls on all of your set top boxes.  If anyone tries to order a PPV movie it will prompt for a password.  if you have one set up already you should change the password. 

Just my 2 cents.

[Lyn21]

I was also charged for 5 Adult movies that we did not rent. I can not make anyone at Verizon believe me. The said that I had to have done it. Really? If I had done this I would willing pay for it, and not discuss with anyone. Duh! This all happened two days after they installed my service. The box that they say it was rented on. There wasn't even anyone in the room all that day. They said it was impossible for anyone to hack into it. But they were sure willing to send me a new box. I have never been treated like this before. Thinking about going back to my old cable company. At least they never acussed me of lying to them. What ever happened to good customer service?? This {word filter avoidance}cost alot of money!!! Let's not forget they promise you a $300.00 gift card when you pay your bill on time, and 90 day's of service. Kinda hard to do when they just keep charging for things you aren't responsible for. Seems like a trick bag to me..........

[bali1]

I am sick about how I am being treated.  I got a $73 charge for a boxing match, which we NEVER ordered.  It is very freaky, because I was on chat and phone with Verizon over an hour and a half and they INSIST someone in my home ordered it.  Well, my husband and I did NOT order it, and neither did my 4 year-old son.  They INSIST I have to pay because we ordered it.  I am going in circles with these people!  Now I am thinking someone hacked my account.  I told them I am not paying it and they say I have to!  I can't believe I have to pay something I NEVER asked for!!  What can I do?  Who can help me?  BBB?  HELP!!  These Verizon people are CRAZY!  Now I have to figure out how to get back to Time Warner Cable.  I am afraid this is going to keep happening.....I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone....

[ElizabethS]

Sorry you are having difficulty, an agent with access to your account will reach out to you directly by email, private message in the Forums and/or the billing telephone number on your Verizon account for more information to help you resolve your issue.

[TampaTechie]

I got this exact same charge on my bill. $73 for a boxing match and no one in my house watches boxing. I know for a fact we were out of the house that night, but Verizon insists that someone activated it using our remote and that there is "no way it can be hacked." Yeah, right. If Verizon can access the box from their computers, surely it's possible that someone else can too. They wouldn't take the charge off, but I got pay-per-view disabled so hopefully this can't happen again.

[LawrenceC]

Hi TampaTechie,

Sorry you are having difficulty with this charge. An agent with access to your account will reach out to you directly by email, private message in the Forums and/or the billing telephone number on your Verizon account for more information or to help you resolve your issue.

[yards]

I was wondering how this was resolved. 

i had fios installed at my 91yr old mothers house and she has been charged TWICE already for sporting events that were NOT ordered.

I tried to argue the first charge with customer support and grudgingly conceded (73$ !)

However it has happened again and i will NOT pay for services NOT ordered . THEIR technicians MUST set up THEIR equipment so that this kind of error is not possible on either side !

I have not called customer support about this second charge yet(as they had a prepared argument the last time) and am wondering what i can do about this.

 -frustrated fios customer

[Xuaco]

I have been hacked since late March and have multiple charges from a TV we rarely use and havent used in at least 4 months.  Verizon acts as if I am lying that these are not our charges.  8 charges in one day, several at the same time and multiple rentals of same David Spade movie.  REALLY?  All others were concert footage of bands we dont listen to.  They told me they show as watched to completion so there is nothing they can do.  Gave me the box # that was culprit and found it was one of the $3.99 digital boxes connected to TV we rarely used so I promptly disconnected it completely.  I didnt even know you could get PPV unless it was a DVR.  I am asking Verizon to disable the feature on my account and they wont do it.   I will be paying my bill minus the charges uintil they fix it with a credit or will be dropping TV service and just get an HD antenna if it happens again.  For me it is not about the charges but the principle around their unwillingness to look at the charges, compare to my history on the account and accept that they are inconsistent and at the least, most likely a bogus charge.  Thieves without guns !!  

Frustrated customer

[LawrenceC]

Hi Xuaco,

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Before the agent can begin assisting you, they will need to collect further information from you. Please go to your profile page for the forum and look at the top of the middle column where you will find an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name beside your post, or at the top left of this page underneath the title of the board.

Under "My Support Cases" you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. The title of your post is the link. This should be checked on a frequent basis, as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. To ensure you know when they have responded to you, at the top of your support case there is a drop down menu for support case options. Open that and choose "subscribe". Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.

[Xuaco]

Thank you but after going through 5 different customer service reps I finally got a competent and responsive person by the name of Christopher {edited for privacy}.  I also sent a concerned message to your fraud department.  When I told Chistopher that the # on the box showing PPV charges was a standard digital converter box, he said we can't get PPV on those.  This after several of your other reps stated unequivocally that I could.    Christopher looked up the box # and confirmed the box type was one which can't even get PPV on.  He was receptive, listened to the issue and responsive as one would expect and promptly corrected my account by removing the charges.

This should have been done by one of the previous customer DISSERVICE reps I spoke to. I have also disconnected all PPV feature from my accound going forward because you are such a pain the rear to deal with as a company.  Kind of sets the tone for why I am upset even further now since you have wasted a significant amount of my personal time trying to resolve this.  My bill rate is several hundred dollars/hr, maybe I should send Verizon a bill for my time wasted.

[ranjay5161]

This problem has now happened twice to me also. Both times were movie purchases using my reward points. The first time I had forgotten to reset a purchase pin I had removed, so we blamed my 4yearold grandson for hitting the right buttons to purchase. Cust service did replace my points and I immediately put a pin back on the purchases. Now it happened again, and was right after dinner when my daughter was with my grandson, and no one in the house knows the pin. Cust service this time said it was inpossible for this to happen, but offered to replace the points. I will be changing my PIN's again, but still believe there is some weird glitch going on where someone else's orders are hitting my account.

[Anthony_VZ]

Utopia and mhdennis we need to not only identify that a parental pin code is set, but also that purchases are set to be controlled by the parental pin. Please press MENU, then goto SETTINGS , then goto  PARENTAL CONTROLS. Type in your code. Then goto CONTROL PURCHASES and verify that USE PARENTAL PIN is set.

[mhdennis]

Both parental and purchase codes are now set on my box.  But Anthony, can you explain how three rentals were charged to my account when no one was in my house?  We were half-way across the country when three charges occurred.  There was no one in the home to purchase them.

I finally got a very understanding customer rep. who said this has happened before.  She credited me for movies going back to April that we did not rent.  She also removed the Spanish language charge.

[pbergeron37]

Same thing happened to me.  Took months to resolve. I had parental controls, a special password to allow anyone

making changes over the phone... but charges kept rolling in.

They finally gave me a replacement set top box and I have not seen a bogus charge come in since (been 60 days).

[Hardegen123]

I have been having the same problem for months -- I am now up to five on demand movies I have been charged for that I never rented.  While Verizon removes the charges to my account, they absolutely refuse to acknowledge that their system has been compromised. Someone has hacked their on demand system and they need to sort it out.

Their technical support representative was an idiot - he kept insisting that this was impossible -- but it is possible and I am not the only customer experiencing this issue.

VERIZON, YOUR SECURITY PEOPLE HAVE TO SOLVE THIS ISSUE -- BUT FIRST THEY MUST ADMIT THEY HAVE A PROBLEM!

Hardegen123

[drsunshine1]

I've experienced the same problem.  Since April, we've been billed multiple times for VOD movies and sports packages we did not order.  The first few months we called the charges were removed, but not after lengthy hold times, lengthy discussions w/reps trying to get them to understand that we DID NOT order the items, that it was NOT a parental control issue ( we have no children, but after the third phone call I put activated the controls to pacify the rep and for proof when the next item was billed in error that it was NOT us ordering the movie, etc ).  Each rep stated they'd never heard of this before ( I later found MANY discussions regarding the exact same issue on Verizon's OWN WEBSITE!!  I have spoken with several Supervisors, and once even had a 3-way conference call with Supv and IT technician, and most recently ( this week ) spoke with the IT Tech Support area two times.  All to no avail.  This past week I waited on a call from Verizon IT area promised to me by a Supv.  When I had to call back for status because no on had called, they said they had tried to call multiple times and had left multiple messages. Come to find out somone had written down the WRONG TEL# when they referred the file to the tech area!!  Pretty pathetic when you consider THEY ARE MY PHONE CARRIER!!  How hard would it have been to look up the correct tel # IN THEIR OWN RECORDS???  I was finally contacted by an IT Teck rep, and after about 30 of him reviewing my account using specific dates & amount from the billing statement, he stated he could see no record that any of of the charges were ordered by us. He filled out a Service Call Ticket for two of the boxes we thought were the ones affected.  He didn't/couldn't use the work HACKED, but it was clear what we were talking about.  He also said he was referring the issue back to the Supv for her to call me to remove the charges from our account.  The service rep came that same day ( Thurs ) and replaced the two boxes per the IT rep's suggestion.  By Sat I still hadn't heard from the Supv, so I called Verizon to check on the status.  The rep said that my case was closed because an internal review area had posted a note to my account on Friday stating that there were NO ISSUES FOUND ...??? ... and that we were responsible for the all of the charges I was disputing ....????.  THIS IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE of what the IT Tech had told me on Thursday. After another lengthy converstation with a borderline-rude rep ( who just kept repeating over and over that this was the "final determination" and that I was liable for all charges ) I was finally able to get him to transfer me to a Supv. The person who answered was NOT a true Supv, she was a "floor supv"/Sr Rep, and she did the same thing as the rep.  When I asked for a Supv she stated that the internal review area was "higher up" than a Supv OR the IT Teck Support dept and I had NO RECOURSE.  I attempted several times to explain what the IT rep had told me on Thurs, but she wouldn't listen to the details of my issue ...she actually cut me off IN MED-SENTENCE by transferring me to the IT Tech Support without staying on the line to explain the transfer!!  I actually got ahold of a very nice IT rep, who spent almost an hour trying to research my issues. He stated he had a very difficult time researching my issue because the notes/documentation on the Ticket # were so brief and/or incomplete that he couldn't follow what had happened or where the prior IT rep had found the info he gave me on Thurs's call.  He stated that he didn't have access to the "diagnostic tool" necessary to properly investigate to determine if the charges were actually ordered on our actual remote, or if they came from another source.  Again, this IT rep didn't/couln't use the work HACKED, but we both knew what we were talking about. We even discussed the multiple Forums/Discussions on VERIZON'S OWN WEBSITE re: this same issue happening to many other people.  In the end, all he could do was to re-refer the issue back to the Internal Review area for another review and put a note on file the I was requesting a call-back so I could speak to someone in person.  In addition, I STILL have not received a call-back from the Supv I spoke with last Wednesday.  This is the absolute worst service I've received from any company, ever.  I will be filing a complaint with the BBB.  I will also be filing a complaint with Verizon's Corporate Office. I will be attaching a copy of my detailed phone call notes with names, titles, and dates going back to May 2013.  Am also considering banding together with family, friends, and neighbors who are having the same issues and going to 8 On Your Side for help in resolving these issues.  Anyone out there experiencing the same thing that has a suggestion or solution that ended up resolving their issue???  

[LawrenceC]

Hi drsunshine,

Your issue has been escalated to a Verizon agent. Before the agent can begin assisting you, they will need to collect further information from you. Please go to your profile page for the forum and look at the top of the middle column where you will find an area titled "My Support Cases". You can reach your profile page by clicking on your name beside your post, or at the top left of this page underneath the title of the board.

Under "My Support Cases" you will find a link to the private board where you and the agent may exchange information. This should be checked on a frequent basis, as the agent may be waiting for information from you before they can proceed with any actions. Please keep all correspondence regarding your issue in the private support portal.