My account was accessed and unauthorized changes made by We R Wireless

Question

I recently became a ware of a very serious issue and have been getting little assistance from Verizon.  My account was password protected and had only 3 people identified as having the ability to make changes on my account.  I received a notice from Verizon regarding a change made on one of my lines.  Upon review it was an unauthorized change to add "Total Mobile Protection" to one of my lines for $9.00 a month.  Also in this notice was a credit which I was entitled to for a $10.00 Active Promotion.  I believe this credit was placed on the account so that the change might slip by unnoticed.   When I looked into the change it was made by a Representative from We R Wireless in Ship Bottom NJ.  I have never been to this store nor have I spoken with anyone ever at this store.
After calling the store and confirming my account was accessed and unauthorized changes made, I was told by the manager that an employee had in fact accessed my account and made those changes.  I still could not understand how it was possible for the changes to have been made without my password.  The activity certainly looked very suspicious and I figured it had to do with commission to the representative for adding the insurance plan.  This was denied multiple times by the manager of the store as well as the District Manager.  In the meantime I had received multiple emails from We R Wireless in their attempts to "Make this go away"
What came next was the most disturbing and upsetting part of this situation.  I was told by the District Manager of WE R Wireless that my information they had collected years ago during a purchase of a phone and activation INCLUDING MY PASSWORD and that they had kept it in their system!!
WE R Wireless had shared my personally identifiable information and Password to my account with Sales representatives at the Ship Bottom WE R Wireless store  and that was how they accessed my account!!
As you can imagine I have now been receiving multiple calls from The Director of Retail Operations, Musafa as well as the Director of Operations, Jimmy.  They are attempting to sweep this under the carpet and it is inexcusable and unacceptable.  The reason for this post is to WARN others who may have made purchases at anytime at a We R Wireless store that they KEEP YOUR PASSWORD and employees are given the Passwords and have made changes to accounts.  I cannot believe that I am the only one that this has happened to and I am concerned this is a widespread breech and more importantly is ILLEGAL.
I will keep this Board updated with developments but can tell you so far Verizon has not been very responsive to my concerns but this is unacceptable and I am thinking of contacting the FCC as well as an Attorney.  In this day and age of Identity Theft this situation must be addressed by Verizon whether or not this was one rogue employee or not our PASSWORDS and other Information should never be shared nor kept without our knowledge.
>> Edited to comply with the Verizon Wireless Terms of Service <<
Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

Answer 1

I can only tell you that the Verizon rep from the Fraud department as well as Verizon's legal department contacted me and said under no circumstances are these companies to retain Customer Passwords.  As you can see look at the potential for issues as evident in this situation.
As far as the FCC and their responsibilities this is directly from the website
The Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. An independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress, the commission is the United States' primary authority for communications law, regulation and technological innovation. In its work facing economic opportunities and challenges associated with rapidly evolving advances in global communications
The agency investigates consumer issues such as Cramming which has occurred here if you go to the site you will see some of the recent fines for cramming levied by the FCC and it is a huge issue.  A consumer does not get involved in legal fees the FCC is responsible to investigate consumer claims of fraud and regulates the industry.  The Attorney General also takes this very seriously as well.
Cramming - Unauthorized Charges on Your Phone Bill
Cramming Settlement for Consumers Announced
Dec. 19, 2014: The FCC, along with the FTC and state attorneys general, announced a $90 million settlement with T-Mobile regarding unauthorized charges - commonly known as "cramming" - on phone bills.
Current and former T-Mobile wireless customers should review their bills and apply for refunds if they suspect third party charges were wrongly added to their bills at www.t-mobilerefund.com/
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