Rogers telemarketing - scam & privacy concerns

Rogers telemarketing - scam & privacy concerns

November 7, 2005

Warning!!! Rogers has sold your Account Number to a Scam!!!! During the evening of Oct. 25, I received a call at home from someone claiming to be a representative of Rogers Wireless and he had a promotion for me as I had been selected from Rogers' client list to receive a special offer. The area code that appeared on my call display was somehow falsified (it was 422) and the individual from the call centre was virtually impossible to understand. He did have my Rogers Cable account number. However the deal seemed attractive:

2 free phones

no contract

1000 free minutes

unlimited local for first 7 months

And more that I really couldn't understand.

I said that I would like to take the deal and was immediately transferred to a "manager". This individual told me that for the security of the valuable package that they were going to send me, he was required to get 2 pieces of ID from me. He said that it could be "any id" such as Passport number, SIN number, Green Card, Birth Certificate or Drivers License. When I refused to give any of that information over the phone, he informed me that he was not able to send my order without it and then reiterated that anything, even a passport, SIN or green card would be fine. I asked him his name and where he was calling from and after having to get him to spell it, he said that his name was Jason Robinson and he was in "downtown Toronto" but could not name any specific areas in "downtown Toronto".

I immediately called Rogers Customer Service to file a complaint. The individual there informed me that Rogers uses a lot of off-shore companies for their telemarketing. He also told me that the offer that was made was not available at all from any Rogers outlet. That call ended with a promise of a call back within 24 hours which as of Nov. 7, has not been received.

I also emailed the privacy office of Rogers. I received a call back on Nov. 1. The first thing that the person making the call back tried to do was sell me Rogers services that I do not currently have. After apologizing for that he informed me that the majority of Rogers' call centres are in the Toronto area and had no explanation why Customer Service would tell me the complete opposite. He also said that Rogers does not "give" the information to these 3rd party call centres but they "give them access to a database" which contained my account number. He had no answers as to why this happened and why they would want my passport number. He also had no excuse as to why I was not informed of Rogers privacy policy, what the information was being collected for etc. as per the Privacy Act (PIPEDA).

As of this point on Nov. 7, I have received a message asking for a call back to the privacy person who had no answers the first time. I have left a message but have had no response. Has anyone seen this? Is this a current scam being tried on unsuspecting Rogers clients? NOTE: Rogers did not deny that such a thing could have taken place. Click this link to e-mail the message author: Email User

Comment On This

I have a new scam after 10 years of having my Rogers cell phone one day my voice mail does not work. I call them and they tell me to try all these different things then they say we will have to call you on your home phone to fix this problem

knowing that I don't have a home phone so than they say well come into the nearest store and we will fix it (the nearest store is a 1 hour bus ride away and I am blind).

This is the second time in a month that this scam has happened. I'm getting

pissed off with this garbage. In my view they will do ANYTHING to get you to subscribe to their HOME PHONE SERVICE

which I told them a million times that I don't need or want. The problem as I see it is:

1) Rogers knows who pays their bill on time and who does not.

2) So they try to get people like that to buy into as many products as possible

3) they know that I'm disabled (legally blind and walk with a cane.

4) Now they try to extort more money out of people like me because they know that WE ALWAYS PAY!!!

WELL FUCK THEM!!!!!

Comment On This

I fell for the same trick,and when I asked the telle marketing guy if I would have to pay any fee for cancellation,he said no.I thought I was the only one who was scammed by Rogers.

Comment On This

I work for SMT direct marketing

and we work on behalf of rogers wireless

and yes we are usually calling existing customers to help customers save money on their wireless bills as well as help new people get all set up with rogers.. SMT is hired by rogers directly to do this and all our calls are recorded for quality and varification.. yes we ask for ID's but arn't able to take your health card number because thats the law, we can take anyother ID's just to confirm that yes you are the right person and an't signing up a cartoon character or a family per or any scam like that its to protect you and us against fraud. Please note that we only ask people to have their ID's ready when we transfer you to Rogers varification it is then that you give the ID's out. Hope next time you will sign up if you are lucky enough to recieve an other offer. and btw you have 30 days legally to decide even after you sign up.