Comcast Sued For Failure To Address Cell Phone Fraud

Comcast's new Xfinity Wireless service isn't all that old, but the company is already being accused of failing to adequately address fraud related to the service. A new class action filed against the company (pdf) accuses the cable giant of not doing enough to prevent scammers from opening wireless customer service accounts in users names--then using customer financial info to ship phones to alternative addresses. The lawsuit also alleges that Comcast has turned a blind eye to this problem as part of an attempt to artificially inflate the company's Xfinity Mobile subscriber numbers.

The lawsuit was filed by an Illinois Comcast customer by the name of Elizabeth O’Neil, who says she was erroneously billed for several smartphones she never ordered thanks to scammers and Comcast's apathy to the problem.

“In an apparent effort to grow its fledgling mobile business segment, Comcast leveraged the personal account information of its existing cable and internet customers to allow the opening of XFINITY Mobile accounts through its online customer portal,” O’Neil says in the XFINITY Mobile class action lawsuit.

The lawsuit is arguably vague about what mechanism in Comcast's systems is being exploited by these scammers, though the company has been recently dinged for two different instances of website security problems in as many months. Comcast wouldn't comment on the specifics of the lawsuit when I pressed them for comment, but did suggest there was no specific security flaw being exploited.

“We are aware of the lawsuit that was filed in the Northern District of Illinois and we are in the process of investigating the claims," Comcast told DSLReports.com in a statement. "Fraud is an issue across the wireless industry, and there is no indication of a breach of our systems. We are prepared to vigorously defend against this action. However, given the pending nature of the litigation, we cannot comment further at this time."

To support the claim of widespread fraud, the lawsuit points to numerous complaints over at the official Comcast forums from users who all share some very similar experiences.

"This just happened to me on 1/7/18," complains one user. "I have spent HOURS on the phone with Xfinity. They won't believe me! Someone ordered phones in my name (I live in Colorado) and the phones are going to Pennsylvania!"

"I have had the same thing happen to me," complains another. "Never had an Xfinity mobile account but somehow one opened in my name without my consent and 2 iPhone Xs were ordered to another state. How the heck do I get this resolved?"

"This all happened to me when I was on vacation and not checking my email so I didn’t have a clue until I got the text message saying thanks for setting up my mobile account," says another angry New Jersey resident who says multiple, costly iPhone X's were delivered to an address in Texas on their dime.

The company's wireless service had just 380,000 subscribers as of the end of last year, but Comcast has been burning through money in its efforts to get the fledgling service off the ground. Meanwhile, Comcast's apparent failure to address the problem quickly reflects a company whose customer service ratings have historically been among the worst of any major corporation in any industry in America.

The full suit (pdf) has more detail.