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smmpr13aol
@70.197.2.x

smmpr13aol

Anon

[Verizon] Privacy Issues with Verizon Family Plans

I recently joined my families Share Everything plan through Verizon. My mother started the plan and invited myself plus my 3 brothers to join the plan. We all are independent adults that all live on our own but like anyone would jumped at the opportunity to save some money while helping each other. What we were NOT AWARE of is that all
family plans have a system administrator that typically is the person who assumes financial liability. And even worse once you sign up decide to join you no longer own that number and the S.A. has detailed access to each lines call and text log. PROBLEM: We found father took ownership of the Family Plan away ownership away from my mother after we joined so he could use it as a business expense for his failing business, making him the system administrator. My father has been and is a cyclical alcoholic and when he's cycling he extremely abusive in every way imaginable. Of course he's currently on a bender and is going into each of our accounts and has erased each lines contacts, viewing call and texts logs. Then having one of his buddies make calls or send texts to random contacts saying horrible things about us and our mother. Plus reading each our texts to find out if one if us are going meeting a friend or client somewhere then showing up drunk acting like it was a coincidence. ALL OF WHICH HE DENIES but he's the only one with the password. My mother can't and won't stop him, Verizon won't let us remove our numbers because we don't have the password and yes we have told them everything. I personally have had my number for 20 yrs and have had my own sales consulting business for same amount of time. My cell number equates to my businesses success or failure. What can we do without putting our mother in a more dangerous spot than she already is and always refused to leave him. Of course one of stay with them when my father is drunk to protect her and him from himself its the only thing we can do she will not leave him. Anyway is there anyway to BLOCK HIM FROM VIEWING our personal and private data? Is there a way to force Verizon to give us our #s back?. He is the only one with the password and very convincing. Help!!!

Cabal
Premium Member
join:2007-01-21

Cabal

Premium Member

This sounds a lot more like a relationship issue than it does a technical one.

As for getting your numbers back, you probably need to port them elsewhere. You may incur an ETF if this whole thing just started.

amazingm
Premium Member
join:2001-07-16
USA

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Is the bill under his name or hers?
JoelC707
Premium Member
join:2002-07-09
Lanett, AL

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Aside from the obvious family issues which I won't go into, I can tell you as the "system admin" of my families Verizon plan, most of what you said is NOT possible. I can't send calls and messages appearing as anything other than myself and while I can view the call and message log, all I can see is that a call/message was placed and which direction (send/receive), no details about the message or anything like that is available.

Now then, there are a couple of things that COULD be happening that would explain some of what you are saying. If you are backing up any of your phone's data to the Verizon Cloud thing, the admin could possibly view what is backed up but that's all they would be able to do (as far as I know, I only backup my call logs and messages there, contacts are sync'd with Google and pics with Dropbox). They would only be able to view the info not delete it (they may be able to delete it from the cloud but if that translates down to the phone that's a shitty design IMO). When I click on the other lines to view their cloud storage it tells me to enable that functionality on them so if you are using Cloud, the simple solution is to stop.

The other option is something you can't control yourself and is likely more unnerving IMO. As the admin, there are various "family" safeguards and locators that are designed to allow a parent to keep tabs on their child's phone. If that has been activated against your lines, he may be able to read your messages and at the very least can use the phone's GPS to locate you (which would be how he "shows up" even if he can't read your messages).

To be honest, I don't envy you one bit. How recent was "recently joined"? You mentioned you have had this number for 20 years, did you have it with Verizon or port the number in? Did you buy a new cell phone when you joined their plan (or any time after)? If you didn't buy a new phone, the line is not under contract and while it may take some doing, you can likely get it back.

PhoenixDown
FIOS is Awesome
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join:2003-06-08
Fresh Meadows, NY

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You need to deal with this with your parents unfortunately.

Legally, your dad now owns the numbers. It's a shame your mom and your dad have done this.

Typically if you go into a family share type plan together, you need to have mutual trust. Trust that the account owner wont screw you over and trust that the inviduals on the account will live up to their end of the bargain and pay their part of the bill on time.

smmpr
@70.211.69.x

smmpr

Anon

Thank you so much for the input. I truly appreciate it. Please know that I understand completely that this event hs opened my eyes to the fact that my father did not do some things I (we-myself & brothers) thought he did to process some things from his past to stop his abusive behavior. We do not live with our parents and by all outwardly accounts his demenur backed up his his claims. I'm a huge advocate of counseling and therapy because I had to seek help to process pain from my childhood. It's a cycle. Since this event with the phone I've been pushing for Family Therapy and so far everyone's on board except one brother and my father. Those on board have agreed to take advantage of my offer in hopes the other two will change there mind. So to those who replied thinking I was not recognizing the obvious huge underlining problem, I have and was not told the truth. And as the oldest sibling will support any of my family anytime to improve their lives vand mine. Addiction and abuse is an incredibly difficult enemy to battle not to mention how much it breaks your heart seeing someone you love in so much pain. But still does not make anyone invading your privacy as an adult OK. That's worth no about a money.
So, Ive had this # with different phones with Verizon since they were GTE. I did not buy a new phone when I joined the Share Everything Plan offered. I decided to jump on board because there was a high level of trust and my monthly fee went from $53 per month to $25 without loosing any features plus I was helping my family save $ because you need at least 3 people and the more you add the more discount for all. My mistake is I did not read the fine print so if my dad tells Verizon I'm 17 he can implement all those parental features plus. And as I've found its going to take an act of God and a discussions with high level management at Verizon to pull my number off the plan. Or I get a new number temporary in hopes my father will loose interest because he won't be receiving any information to abuse. So Verizon did confirm the parental features were added to the account but wouldnt go further than that because I do not have the account password. Plus I received advice to first check my phone for certain spyware especially if I have been around my father since I switched plans, I have. Then regardless of I locate spyware or not to go to a Verizon location and have them do a hard reset. From there I have to make some hard choices. Which I will do. I appreciate the feedback from everyone, it was very helpful. Hopefully my story had reminded everyone to "always" read the fine print. Even when you have complete trust in whomever is presenting you with any opportunity because maybe they forgot to read the fine orint themselves. If I would of took a moment to remember that I would have not put myself in this situation. It's all about taking ownership for your actions. I hope the best for my father! I'll be here for him when he's ready to take ownership.
Once again thanks for all the feedback! Incredibly helpful.

oh wow
@166.147.104.x

oh wow

Anon

Sorry to hear of your problems. I too am the product of parents with serious alcohol addiction and understand your plight. Been there, done that and still have the lousy tee shirt. In my case, they are so addicted, we have no contact and haven't had any for nearly 25 years. AFAIK, they are still alive but I don't know that for sure.

Unfortunately, in this case, the cheap is going to end up being expensive. I would get a new number/account/phone ASAP, expect the change to be permanent and start the process of migrating contacts over. I would do the migration in complete stealth to your alcoholic account owner. For instance, don't change your VM greeting to include your new contact info, don't forward your calls since the fact you are forwarding will show up in the call logs and the account management portal. As calls come in, give your caller the new number. If messages are left, return the call with your new number and, for those who screen calls, be sure to leave a message with your new contact info. If you are a smartphone user, DO delete all of the associated e-mail accounts and the related data off of the family plan phone. The objective is not to feed the fire while regaining your privacy and control over your business affairs as seamlessly as possible. Take is slow and easy and you'll be free of this and the account owner won't even know you've moved critical communications elsewhere. Keep in mind that the account owner can cancel your line completely, at any time, if they so desire! If things simmer down and you are able to pull out, you'll have to decide if switching back is worth the effort. If you are using your phone for business, it may be worth the extra money to maintain separate business (new line) and personal (existing line) phones. As a small business owner, I have two separate lines of service and a side benefit is keeping business and personal separate for the tax purposes.

As you can see, unless someone at VZW takes action on your behalf, there isn't an inexpensive or painless way to deal with it. The lesson you've now learned is priceless and will last a lifetime.

Good luck and hope all works out well for you.