Security Break in my Comcast account

leob · 2 May 2005, 12:24 AM

I would appreciate hearing what others think and actions I should take after experiencing problems with e-mail service from Comcast. Here’s what happened: We recently left town for approximately 10 days. Before leaving town our e-mail service was working fine. On our return we found that we could not retrieve e-mail from two user names listed in our account. I contacted Comcast via their chat room. It turns out that while we were away three of the user names listed in our account were dropped from the data base and replaced with three new user names. Comcast did not inform me that these names were changed. We lost all the e-mail that came to us during time we were away, and friends informed us that Comcast started kicking back e-mails addressed to us with a note stating that customer did not exist… After 3 days of messing around they were finally able to reshuffle their databases in a manner that allowed me to restore our old user names. During the discussions one of the comcast agents indicated that comcast had entered our account on April 20- a date when we were out of town and not using our email. There was no authorization from us to enter our account.

If this isn’t bad enough, I asked the obvious question: how did this happen? The exchange I had with the Comcast agent is given below. You’ll see he went corporate on me and suggested I contact their legal department in order to get an answer to this question and then cut me off without further discussion! Here’s the script:

'Me >. I want to know why this happened. From my previous conversations with your colleagues it is apparent that someone entered our account on 4/20 and changed three user names in our account. This change has caused a loss of our e-mail communications since then. I consider that this represents a serious security breach and I have lost confidence in comcast.
Robert > I am not at liberty to discuss that issue, but rest assured that we at Comcast take security very seriously. This is why we ask for account verification, before making any changes.
Robert > Is there anything else I can do for you, today?
Me > I want an answer to my question or we will be leaving comcast. would you please find someone who can give me some satisfaction?
Me > If you take security so seriously how is it possible that the security of my account was compromised?
Robert > Please contact our legal department, at 1-888-239-9959, for information more on this subject.
Robert > Have a great day.

Please remember that you can always log into www.comcast.net and click on Help -- Ask Comcast, to type your question and receive help, or click on Help -- FAQS, to obtain an answer from our Online Help database. Thank you for using Comcast Support.
Robert > Analyst has closed chat and left the room'

I’d appreciate any advice the community could give in this situation. I think it is appalling that a) such changes could happen to my account without my permission and b) that Comcast seems unwilling to address this without going legal on me. My questions are these: Do you agree that it is unacceptable for Comcast to operate in such a manner? Do they have some sort of liability in this instance that would make them go legal on me? Would I be owed some form of compensation in this instance? Is there a regulatory authority I can complain to? What recourse do I have in this situation? Thanks in advance for your comments. I appreciate it.

marcus0263 · 2 May 2005, 05:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by leob

<snip>
I’d appreciate any advice the community could give in this situation. I think it is appalling that a) such changes could happen to my account without my permission and b) that Comcast seems unwilling to address this without going legal on me. My questions are these: Do you agree that it is unacceptable for Comcast to operate in such a manner? Do they have some sort of liability in this instance that would make them go legal on me? Would I be owed some form of compensation in this instance? Is there a regulatory authority I can complain to? What recourse do I have in this situation? Thanks in advance for your comments. I appreciate it.

I'm not 100% on the legal issue of what you can do, but this is wrong. I don't believe they logged into your account, it appears that they just changed user names associated with that account. If they do have login rights to your account and logged in, then there is major legal issues.

But with all these crazy policies and acts being passed here in the US I like keeping an my mail service with companies who do not host their servers domesticly.

***Edwin*** · 2 May 2005, 06:22 PM

Let's stick to the topic and steer clear of the politics, please!

**psalzer** · 2 May 2005, 07:15 PM

I wouldn't let it drop with talking to the online tech support. I would contact their offices and not quit until they could offer some kind of explanation. I also wouldn't use their e-mail anymore. If your area is like mine, you might not have a choice of providers for broadband connectivity, but there are lots of e-mail options.

You probably aren't owed compensation unless you can prove a financial or other serioius loss, but if you reach someone with the power to make a decision they might offer a free month of service or something like that.

**Shelded** · 2 May 2005, 10:24 PM

This is customer service I expect from att-broadband-home-comcast-nameOfTheYear. Would always try to avoid them.

unhappysoul · 3 May 2005, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by psalzer
I wouldn't let it drop with talking to the online tech support. I would contact their offices and not quit until they could offer some kind of explanation. I also wouldn't use their e-mail anymore. If your area is like mine, you might not have a choice of providers for broadband connectivity, but there are lots of e-mail options.

You probably aren't owed compensation unless you can prove a financial or other serioius loss, but if you reach someone with the power to make a decision they might offer a free month of service or something like that.

I use comcast and Verzion DSL before but I never use
email address from ISP providers.

David · 3 May 2005, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by unhappysoul
I use comcast and Verzion DSL before but I never use
email address from ISP providers.

I have always found my ISP email accounts to be the best of the best (regarding reliability and uptime) compared to any webmail accounts that I have ever had. Yet feature wise they fail miserably. My current dsl isp gives me a 15 Mb mailbox, none customisable spam filtering (that works) I can turn it on or off. A very simple webmail interface + POP access. It's all you really need

2 May 2005, 12:24 AM	#1
leob Junior Member Join Date: May 2005 Location: Boston Posts: 1	Security Break in my Comcast account I would appreciate hearing what others think and actions I should take after experiencing problems with e-mail service from Comcast. Here’s what happened: We recently left town for approximately 10 days. Before leaving town our e-mail service was working fine. On our return we found that we could not retrieve e-mail from two user names listed in our account. I contacted Comcast via their chat room. It turns out that while we were away three of the user names listed in our account were dropped from the data base and replaced with three new user names. Comcast did not inform me that these names were changed. We lost all the e-mail that came to us during time we were away, and friends informed us that Comcast started kicking back e-mails addressed to us with a note stating that customer did not exist… After 3 days of messing around they were finally able to reshuffle their databases in a manner that allowed me to restore our old user names. During the discussions one of the comcast agents indicated that comcast had entered our account on April 20- a date when we were out of town and not using our email. There was no authorization from us to enter our account. If this isn’t bad enough, I asked the obvious question: how did this happen? The exchange I had with the Comcast agent is given below. You’ll see he went corporate on me and suggested I contact their legal department in order to get an answer to this question and then cut me off without further discussion! Here’s the script: 'Me >. I want to know why this happened. From my previous conversations with your colleagues it is apparent that someone entered our account on 4/20 and changed three user names in our account. This change has caused a loss of our e-mail communications since then. I consider that this represents a serious security breach and I have lost confidence in comcast. Robert > I am not at liberty to discuss that issue, but rest assured that we at Comcast take security very seriously. This is why we ask for account verification, before making any changes. Robert > Is there anything else I can do for you, today? Me > I want an answer to my question or we will be leaving comcast. would you please find someone who can give me some satisfaction? Me > If you take security so seriously how is it possible that the security of my account was compromised? Robert > Please contact our legal department, at 1-888-239-9959, for information more on this subject. Robert > Have a great day. Please remember that you can always log into www.comcast.net and click on Help -- Ask Comcast, to type your question and receive help, or click on Help -- FAQS, to obtain an answer from our Online Help database. Thank you for using Comcast Support. Robert > Analyst has closed chat and left the room' I’d appreciate any advice the community could give in this situation. I think it is appalling that a) such changes could happen to my account without my permission and b) that Comcast seems unwilling to address this without going legal on me. My questions are these: Do you agree that it is unacceptable for Comcast to operate in such a manner? Do they have some sort of liability in this instance that would make them go legal on me? Would I be owed some form of compensation in this instance? Is there a regulatory authority I can complain to? What recourse do I have in this situation? Thanks in advance for your comments. I appreciate it.

2 May 2005, 06:22 PM	#3
*Edwin* Administrator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: UK Posts: 3,118	Let's stick to the topic and steer clear of the politics, please!

2 May 2005, 07:15 PM	#4
psalzer Moderator Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Long Island, NY Posts: 2,654	I wouldn't let it drop with talking to the online tech support. I would contact their offices and not quit until they could offer some kind of explanation. I also wouldn't use their e-mail anymore. If your area is like mine, you might not have a choice of providers for broadband connectivity, but there are lots of e-mail options. You probably aren't owed compensation unless you can prove a financial or other serioius loss, but if you reach someone with the power to make a decision they might offer a free month of service or something like that.

2 May 2005, 10:24 PM	#5
Shelded Moderator Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: USA Northwest Posts: 3,849	This is customer service I expect from att-broadband-home-comcast-nameOfTheYear. Would always try to avoid them.