Aussie nurse loses savings in just 24 hours from ‘phone porting' scam — what it is and how to protect yourself
An Australian nurse had her life upended when scammers hijacked her phone number, drained her bank accounts and opened loans in her name — all within 24 hours.
'They were able to change my email, passwords,' Lee-Anne McLean told 9News. 'They broke into my social media and they opened bank loans.'
And she doesn't know how they did it. 'I have security on my phone and my computer, so I'm not sure how they got all my personal information but I would really like to know.'
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Phone porting is a legitimate process that lets you keep your phone number when switching carriers, and it's typically protected by verification safeguards. But scammers have learned how to exploit it.
'To work around these protections, scammers will gather personal information about their target online, combing through social media posts, or purchasing information from cyber thieves or hackers,' according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
If fraudsters have the right combination of personal information — which could include your address, birth date, Social Security number, PINs and passwords — they 'may be able to con the victim's phone company into believing the request to port out the number is from the authorized account holder,' says the FCC.
Once the fraudster convinces your phone company to transfer your number, your phone goes offline — and theirs lights up with your messages and calls, often allowing them to bypass safety measures like two-factor authentication.
'Once the scammer has access, they attempt to drain the victim's bank accounts,' says the FCC. 'In another variation, the scammers may attempt to sell or ransom back to the victim access to their social media accounts.'
This happened to Associated Press reporter Fatima Hussein in 2024, who woke up one morning to discover she didn't have cell service. 'Using my home Wi-Fi connection, I checked my email and discovered a notification that $20,000 was being transferred from my credit card to an unfamiliar Discover Bank account,' she explained in an article for the Financial Post.
Hussein said it took 10 days to get her number back from Cricket Wireless. 'And that wasn't until I told company representatives that I was writing a story about my experience,' she wrote in the Financial Post. During that time, fraudsters had accessed her account three times and transferred $19,000 from her credit card to the same unfamiliar account, even after freezing her credit and changing all her passwords. Bank of America was working to reverse the $19,000 transfer.
Neither McLean nor Hussein know how fraudsters got their information.
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In 2024 alone, SIM swapping scams led to nearly $26 million in reported losses, according to the FBI — and the real figure may be even higher, since many victims don't report.
To minimize the risk, start by asking your wireless provider about port-out authorization. 'Every major wireless has some sort of additional security for accounts or for port-out authorization that customers can set up, like a unique pin, or add verification questions, which will make it more difficult for someone to port out your phone,' according to the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Be on the lookout for phishing scams, which can lead to phone porting scams. A phishing scam takes place when fraudsters try to trick you into giving away personal information, typically by posing as a legitimate individual or business (such as an HR manager or your bank). They may contact you via text, email or phone.
Never give away any personal information to a call or email from an unknown contact. Hang up (or ignore the email) and contact the individual or business with a trusted phone number or even an in-person visit.
'Typically, loss of service on your device — your phone going dark or only allowing 911 calls — is the first sign this has happened,' according to the FCC.
If this has happened to you, time is of the essence. Contact your phone company and bank, and place a fraud alert on your credit reports. Aside from filing a police report, you can also file a complaint with the FCC.
But for victims like McLean or Hussein, recovery can be a long, difficult process.
'My days are basically taken up by trying to prove who I am again,' McLean told 9News, 'and piece by piece trying to put my life back together.'
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Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., did the same. By midday Tuesday, Lee had deleted his tweets. 'I would say he seemed surprised to be confronted,' Smith later told reporters. The shooting unfolds On the morning of June 14, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., announced that former state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, had been shot and killed in their home outside Minneapolis. Another Democratic lawmaker, state Sen. John Hoffman, and his wife, Yvette, were critically injured, in a shooting at their home nearby. The next day, as police searched for the shooter, Lee posted a photo of the alleged shooter with the caption 'Nightmare on Waltz street" — an apparent misspelled attempt to shift blame toward Walz, who was his party's vice presidential nominee in 2024. In a separate post on his personal account, @BasedMikeLee, the senator shared photos of the alleged suspect alongside the caption: 'this is what happens When Marxists don't get their way.' 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2 hours ago
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After a senator's posts about the Minnesota shootings, his incensed colleagues refused to let it go
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He added, 'I pray that Senator Lee and your office begin to see the people you work with in this building as colleagues and human beings.' Lee avoided reporters for much of the week, though he did tell them he had deleted the posts after a 'quick' discussion with Klobuchar. Lee has not apologized publicly. 'We had a good discussion, and I'm very glad he took it down,' Klobuchar said at a news conference. Tragedy prompts reflection in Congress The uproar came at a tense time for the Senate, which fashions itself as a political institution that values decorum and respect. Senators are under intense pressure to react to the Trump administration's fast-paced agenda and multiple global conflicts. Republicans are in high-stakes negotiations over the party's tax and spending cuts plan. Democrats are anxious about how to confront the administration, especially after federal agents briefly detained Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., at a recent Department of Homeland Security news conference in California. Lawmakers believe it's time to lower the temperature. 'I don't know why Mike took the comments down, but it was the right thing to do,' said Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M. 'I appreciate my Republican colleagues who were very clear with their observations. And those that spoke up, I want to commend them.' He added: 'We just all have to talk to each other. And what I learned from this week is people need to lean on each other more, and just get to know each other more as well.' ___ Associated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? 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Yahoo
4 hours ago
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Social Security's 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Estimate Is Getting a "Trump Bump" -- Here's How Much Extra You Might Receive
As many as nine out of 10 retirees rely on their Social Security income to cover some portion of their expenses. Estimates for Social Security's 2026 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) are climbing, and President Trump's tariff and trade policy looks to be the culprit. Though an above-average COLA for a fifth-consecutive year would be welcome on paper, retirees continue to get the short end of the stick when it comes to annual raises. The $23,760 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook › Last month, Social Security's retired-worker benefit made history, with the average payout topping $2,000 for the first time since the program's inception. Although this represents a modest monthly benefit, it's nevertheless proved vital to helping aging workers cover their expenses. In each of the prior 23 years, pollster Gallup surveyed retirees about their reliance on the Social Security income they're receiving. Between 80% and 90% of respondents noted it was a "major" or "minor" income source. In other words, only around one in 10 retirees could, in theory, make do without their Social Security check. For an overwhelming majority of Social Security beneficiaries, nothing is more important than knowing precisely how much they'll receive each month -- and that begins with the program's annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), which is announced during the second week of October. This year's COLA announcement will be of particular interest, with President Donald Trump's tariff and trade policies expected to directly affect how much Social Security beneficiaries will receive per month in 2026. But before digging into the specifics of how President Trump's policies are expected to impact the pocketbooks of seniors, survivors, and workers with disabilities, it's important to understand the building blocks of what Social Security's COLA is and why it matters. The program's COLA is effectively the "raise" passed along on a near-annual basis that accounts for the impact of inflation (rising prices) on benefits. For example, if a large basket of goods and services increased in cost by 3% from one year to the next, Social Security benefits would need to climb by a commensurate amount, or buying power for Social Security recipients would decrease. In the 35 years following the issuance of the first retired-worker check in January 1940, COLAs were assigned at random by special sessions of Congress. Only a total of 11 COLAs were passed along during this timeline, with no adjustments made in the 1940s. Beginning in 1975, the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) was adopted as Social Security's inflationary measure that would allow for annual cost-of-living adjustments. The CPI-W has over 200 spending categories, each of which has its own unique percentage weighting. These weightings are what allow the CPI-W to be expressed as a single figure each month, which leads to crisp month-to-month and year-to-year comparisons to see if prices are, collectively, rising (inflation) or declining (deflation). When calculating Social Security's COLA, only CPI-W readings from the third quarter (July through September) are taken into consideration. If the average CPI-W reading in the third quarter of the current year is higher than the comparable period of the previous year, inflation has occurred, and beneficiaries are due for a beefier payout. Following a decade of anemic raises in the 2010s -- three years during the decade (2010, 2011, and 2016) saw no COLA passed along due to deflation -- beneficiaries have enjoyed four consecutive years of above-average cost-of-living adjustments and are hoping for this streak to continue. A historic increase in U.S. money supply during the COVID-19 pandemic sent the prevailing rate of inflation soaring to a four-decade high. This resulted in COLAs of 5.9% in 2022, 8.7% in 2023, 3.2% in 2024, and 2.5% in 2025, respectively. For context, the average annual increase in benefits since 2010 is 2.3%. While estimates for Social Security's 2026 cost-of-living adjustment came in below this average shortly after President Donald Trump took office for his nonconsecutive second term, the script has now been flipped. Nonpartisan senior advocacy group The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) was forecasting a 2.2% COLA for 2026 as recently as March. Meanwhile, independent Social Security and Medicare policy analyst Mary Johnson, who retired from TSCL last year, was calling for a 2.2% increase in April following the release of the March inflation report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). After the release of the May inflation report from the BLS, both TSCL and Johnson are now forecasting a 2026 COLA of 2.5%. A 2.5% COLA would increase the average retired-worker benefit by $50 per month next year, as well as lift monthly checks for the typical worker with disabilities and survivor beneficiary by $40 and $39, respectively. This 0.3% increase in both forecasts over the past couple of months is estimated to boost the average Social Security payout (for all beneficiaries) by approximately $5.57 per month in 2026. This "Trump bump" is the result of the president's tariff and trade policies having a very modest inflationary impact on domestic prices. Charging a global import duty on all countries while imposing higher "reciprocal tariff rates" on dozens of countries that have historically run adverse trade imbalances with the U.S. can result in these higher costs being passed along to consumers. Though a lot can change with Trump's tariff and trade policy in the coming weeks and months, its current design points to a modest bump in the 2026 COLA. On paper, a fifth consecutive year where COLAs are above average (compared to the previous 16 years) probably sounds great. With the average retired-worker payout cresting $2,000 per month, an added $50 per month would be welcome in 2026. But the fact of the matter is that a 0.3% bump in COLA estimates since Trump introduced his tariff and trade policy doesn't remotely move the needle when it comes to what retirees have been shortchanged for more than a decade. Though the CPI-W is designed to be an all-encompassing measure of inflation, it has an inherent flaw that can be seen in its full name. Specifically, it tracks the spending habits of "urban wage earners and clerical workers," who, in many instances, are working-age Americans not currently receiving a Social Security benefit. Urban wage earners and clerical workers spend their money very differently than seniors. Whereas the former has a higher percentage of their monthly budgets devoted to things like education, apparel, and transportation, seniors spend a higher percentage on shelter and medical care services. Even though an overwhelming majority of Social Security beneficiaries are aged 62 and above, the CPI-W doesn't factor in this added importance of shelter and medical care services inflation. The end result for retirees has been a persistent decline in the buying power of a Social Security dollar. According to a study conducted by TSCL, the purchasing power of a Social Security dollar has dropped by 20% since 2010. A very modest "Trump bump" isn't going to offset this. What's more, the aforementioned two costs that matter most to retirees -- shelter and medical care services -- have had higher trailing-12-month (TTM) inflation rates than the annually issued Social Security COLA. The BLS inflation report for May showed TTM increases of 3.9% for shelter and 3% for medical care services, respectively. As long as the program's cost-of-living adjustment trails the annual inflation rate for these two key expenses, retirees will continue getting the short end of the stick. If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. One easy trick could pay you as much as $23,760 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Join Stock Advisor to learn more about these Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Social Security's 2026 Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) Estimate Is Getting a "Trump Bump" -- Here's How Much Extra You Might Receive was originally published by The Motley Fool
