What to do if your mobile number has been stolen
If you suspect your phone number has been stolen, you should take action as soon as possible.
Someone might have stolen your mobile number if you suddenly can't use your mobile service, or you see "SOS" instead of reception bars.
Select one of the links below to jump to a query:
- What to do if you suspect your mobile number has been stolen
- How someone can steal your mobile number
- How we can help
What to do if you suspect your mobile number has been stolen
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Check your if your mobile service has Ported Out status in My Account.
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Check your email for any notifications from TPG about a mobile service transfer.
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Contact us as soon as possible.
We also recommend that you:
- Contact your bank or financial institution ASAP and tell them someone might be committing fraud using your details;
- Change your passwords for important accounts like your bank, email and social media;
- Report any fraud to local police or the Australian Federal Police;
- Report any cybercrime involving identity theft or online fraud to the Australian Cyber Security Centre;
- Contact IDCARE on 1300 432 273 if you want help with identity crime or cyber security;
- Report the activity to Scamwatch.
How someone can steal your mobile number
If a criminal has your personal information, they can steal your mobile number in a couple of ways:
- An unauthorised port - the criminal contacts a new telco and pretends to be you, sets up an account and ports your number.
- A SIM swap - the criminal contacts your current telco pretending to be you and requests a new SIM that has your number.
Once a criminal has your number, they can receive SMS verification codes. This means they can get access to services such as your bank, email and social media.
How we can help
If someone ported your number without your consent, we can reverse the port.
If someone made a SIM swap without your consent, we can deactivate the SIM and provide you a new one.
Before a mobile number is ported, TPG carries out additional validation checks to ensure the port is authorised. We send a unique verification code via SMS to the affected mobile number. This verification code is required to authorise a porting request, which helps to protect our customers from having their mobile numbers stolen.