How my NBN connection was stolen from under my nose

It was a quiet Friday – tasks done, tea in hand. Life was good. Then an email arrived.

My heart skipped a beat when I read, “We are sorry to see you go” from Aussie Broadband. Go? I hadn’t gone anywhere! Aussie had been a perfect provider for years, had never let me down. Yet, according to this email, I was leaving. I called them urgently.

How could my internet connection be switched off without my involvement?Credit: Peter Braig

Now let me tell you, when you deal with big companies, you quickly learn there are two kinds of people: ducks and eagles. The ducks waddle around making a lot of noise without doing anything. The eagles, on the other hand, soar high, spot the problem and swoop in to fix it.

Sadly for me, I got a duck first up. The explanation I received left me both alarmed and incredulous: according to the Aussie guy, another provider (whose name Aussie couldn’t disclose for “privacy reasons”) had applied to transfer the internet service at my address to another customer, whose name Aussie also couldn’t give me.

That’s right: I wasn’t allowed to know who had told which provider to give them the internet service at my house.

Alarm bells went off. How could someone simply supply a false address to another provider, and steal my NBN connection? This wasn’t just about losing the internet – though that would be serious enough. I pressed for a resolution.

“We need permission from the other provider to reclaim your line,” the duck said. When I called back for an update, I was met with another bureaucratic gem: “The other provider is refusing to co-operate.”

By next morning I’d had enough. I rang Aussie Broadband again, this time making it clear I’d involve the fraud squad if the issue wasn’t resolved. And that’s when I struck gold – I got an eagle. Within an hour, my internet was restored.

But to get my own NBN service back, I had to provide proof of residence. This raised a troubling question: how could someone else hijack my address without similar verification?

Because of the gravity of the situation, I lodged a formal complaint with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO). This wasn’t an administrative error: it was identity theft. Two days later, Aussie Broadband confirmed the other provider involved was M2. But Aussie still couldn’t tell me who had initiated the fraudulent transfer.

So I rang the TIO, this time determined to get some answers. I got a duck. “Well,” the duck said, “the issue here was your loss of NBN, and now you have it back, and you are still with Aussie Broadband – that’s the end of the matter.”

That was not the end of the matter as far as I was concerned. I thought about it for a while longer, and then rang back. This time, I got an eagle. “No worries,” he said, “let’s lodge a formal complaint.” The fight was on.

The next step was a phone call from a representative from Commander, who told me they were part of the M2 system and were trying to find out who had initiated the illegal transfer. Then, out of the blue, I got a phone call from the Philippines. A woman from Dodo – another part of the M2 group – explained the situation.

Her explanation was breathtaking in its simplicity: “We received an online application with your address,” she said, “and we processed it immediately.”

Irrespective of the company you deal with, so much of the outcome depends on whether you get a duck or an eagle.Credit: AP

“Surely you check ID?” I asked. “That’s NBN’s job,” she replied.

That made no sense, so I rang the NBN Media team. They confirmed that NBN does not check the ID of people applying for services. They leave that to the retail service provider that instigates the transaction. Then they told me something interesting.

A revised industry code is coming in a few months that will introduce a transfer validation process. This would require an AVC ID – a unique identifier that would work the same way banks use account numbers.

Once the system is in place, to move between retail service providers, customers on the NBN network would need to share their AVC ID with the new provider. In other words, the problem I had just untangled would soon have a solution.

That’s great news, but in the meantime, I feel sorry for anybody who goes through what I did. And one thing is clear: irrespective of the institution you deal with, so much of the outcome depends on whether you get a duck or an eagle. Every company has both.

Noel Whittaker is the author of Retirement Made Simple and other books on personal finance. Questions to: [e-mail]

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