Christopher Collins woke up on a Saturday morning to find a text from Vodafone welcoming him to their service. The problem was, he was not a Vodafone customer.

Key points: A Queensland couple's bank account was emptied while they slept

A Queensland couple's bank account was emptied while they slept Fraudsters gained access to their bank account by 'porting' Christopher Collins' mobile phone number

Fraudsters gained access to their bank account by 'porting' Christopher Collins' mobile phone number Mobile phone porting fraud was identified as an issue in 2014, but nothing has been done to tackle the growing issue

Next the airline pilot noticed a series of emails from his bank, ING, that his account password had been changed.

Mr Collins, from Queensland's Sunshine Coast, checked his bank account and found he had a zero balance.

When he tried to phone to find out what had happened, his mobile phone was not working.

Mr Collins was one of at least 2,000 victims of mobile-phone-porting fraud reported to cyber and security service IDCARE in the last 12 months.

Porting allows customers to transfer a mobile number from one telecommunication provider to another without changing or losing the original number.

In this case, the fraudster contacted a different phone provider to set up an account with them and requested to have Mr Collins' number brought over from his own provider.

Fraudulent porting on the rise

IDCARE founder, Professor David Lacey, said this fraud was growing at a rate of "around 50 per cent per annum" and he had raised it as an issue five years ago.

The Collins' never opened a dodgy email, did not answer a strange phone call and the fraud began while they were sleeping.

They still have no idea how the scammer got Mr Collins' mobile phone number and account details, but it could have been stolen out of his letter box or someone may have hacked his wife Louise's email account, where she kept some personal information.

Mr Collins said he had to use their son's mobile and spent hours on the phone and inside Telstra, Vodafone and Optus (his wife's carrier's) shops on a Saturday, trying to get someone to explain how their mobile phone number could be ported without his knowledge or consent.

Records from the phone porting transaction show it was suspected as an act of fraud. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Kathy Sundstrom )

Days later, when they finally obtained the initial transcripts of the conversation between the scammer and Telstra, they found the Telstra operator had suspected a fraud before the number was ported.

The customer notes show after the person pretending to be Mr Collins asked for his own driver's licence number, a fraud was suspected.

Despite this, the Telstra operator did not raise any more flags and the scammer was able to take control of Mr Collins' mobile phone, which then made it easy to access his bank account.

A Telstra spokesman said the operator had been given "genuine details" in relation to the customer when the request for the port was made online.

"At the end of the online conversation, we were asked if we could supply the driver's licence details for the customer, which we declined," the spokesman said.

"The online conversation then ceased and the scammer disconnected from the chat.

"Unable to have further discussions to clarify and the previous interactions not having appeared suspicious, the operator added a note saying 'suspected scam', but no further action was taken by Telstra."

The problem with ING

Like hundreds of others, Mr Collins had read Barefoot Investor by Scott Pape and had been persuaded to try ING based on his recommendation.

However, Mr Collins discovered the requirements to change a password with ING were not that complicated.

All that is required is your surname, postcode, your date of birth and your mobile phone number.

"These kinds of details are not hard to find," Mr Collins said.

"How many people have their birth dates on social media, and if you look online, you can often find people's mobile phone numbers.

"The big four banks require an additional level of authentication to make sure it is you, like a customer ID or extra details relating to the bank account."

ING quickly realised the Collins' account was being hacked, closed it down and refunded the $2,000 that had been stolen from it.

Christopher Collins was alarmed to receive an email saying his banking codes had been changed. ( ABC Sunshine Coast: Kathy Sundstrom )

However, it has made no changes in the six weeks since Mr Collins' account was hacked to increase its security and did not respond to a question from the ABC as to whether it planned to.

An ING spokesperson said the bank's detection systems "identified the two fraudulent transactions within minutes of them occurring".

"The account was immediately disabled and the cards cancelled," the spokesperson said.

"Identity theft is a risk and customers and banks need be continually vigilant."

Mr Collins has asked ING to review its practices and has offered to visit them in their Sydney office in person, at his expense, to share his story in detail.

"They declined," he said.

Mr Collins has also written to author Mr Pape raising his security concerns but has not had a response.

Can port fraud be stopped?

Professor Lacey said mobile phone porting fraud was not new and his service had been involved in at least 2,000 cases in the last year alone and numbers were continuing to increase.

He raised it as in issue in 2014 across industry and government stakeholders, yet nothing has changed.

The issue was also highlighted by the ABC in 2017.

Sorry, this video has expired Tracey Holmes explains how her mobile phone account was hijacked.

Professor Lacey said a simple solution had been introduced in the United Kingdom where the mobile phone company would contact the customer before allowing a port to take place.

Mr Collins said if he had received a text from Telstra first up, the entire fraud could have been stopped, his passwords protected and his bank account would not have been hacked.

He would not have had to get a new mobile phone number and spend hours on a Saturday trying to get through to someone who would listen.

The Telstra spokesman said the industry was looking at change.