UPDATE: An insider from AT&T has contacted Gizmodo with information in regards to accounts being compromised when customers login to pre-order the iPhone 4. It turns out that AT&T updated their systems over the weekend and it's likely the cause of the security issue.
Over the weekend there was a major fraud update that went down on all of AT&T's systems, from Saturday overnight to Sunday early morning. All systems were down and agents were unable to use any systems.
The issues people are seeing at AT&T stores and online are most likely related to this update that went wrong.
I do know that there was absolutely NO TESTING of this system done before the launch of the new iPhone. I know it's just heresay at this point, but I can confirm that there was a major outage over the weekend that impacted all ordering systems and programs, and I can confirm that there were multiple systems being upgraded/updated, with some updates being related to fraud.
Head on over to Gizmodo to read the full letter.
Original: We are getting reports in our forums that when trying to pre-order the iPhone 4 on AT&T's website, the account information displayed is not their own, but a total stranger's.
ugahairydawgs reports
Logged in and was looking at the account for some guy from Wisconsin who works for IBM. I thought I had hit the jackpot and that the AT&T computers had messed up and given me full upgrade pricing, but then I realized that the name at the top of the page didn't quite match the one on my drivers license.
jtimmerm says
It's 3:10 pm Chicago time and I just had the same thing happen. Got info for a different guy and company. I realize the servers are busy, but this is unacceptable.
This is a huge security issue on AT&T's part. It may explain why there are so many server issues today. Perhaps AT&T is aware of the problem and prevented access so they could fix it. Perhaps not. We'll be interested to hear what AT&T has to say in regards to this security problem. AT&T is not doing a great job of building customer's trust, especially when something like this happens a week after they were hacked, compromising the email addresses of iPad owners.
Is anyone else receiving access to a stranger's account?
Reader comments
AT&T accounts compromised during iPhone 4 pre-orders?
The real question is whether these crossed wires (so to speak) were confined to Att's customer-facing web application, or whether they were deeper in the stack, such that some back-end calls from Apple to Att for account information were similarly confused, in which case people might not find out until they activate somebody else's phone on the 24th.
I haven't even been able to get through in the pre order screen, but this is bull. I spent a lot of money to terminate my sprint contract to transfer to AT&T, and to know that someone else might have had access to my account ticks me right off.
Yes this happened to me as well.
Tried all day can't get to the account info screen...wow are they bad...
Preorders seem to be working on apple.com now
i just got through.
Same happened to me.. I was logged in into account of some guy from US NAVY (New York)
PS. Made a screenshot of it
@SWEET BS
For those of you who are upgrading, download the apple store app and upgrade with that. Took me about a minute with a really poor connection.
This happened to me.
Work for the company. All our systems are down.
Goatsed again?
really intersting post from an AT&T contractor about what's going on: http://www.mwd.com/2010/06/when-att-employee-tells-you-not-to-buy-iphone...
I went online clearly knowing I would pay full price for the iPhone 32gb which is 700 but found out that I am paying only 300. My contract ends next year. Does this seem right?
Why is this a surprise to anyone??? Steve Jobs is sending half of America to attDOTcom and then we wonder as to why our browsers can hardly render the order page? :-O
http://www.mwd.com/2010/06/when-att-employee-tells-you-not-to-buy-iphone...
AT&T does goofy things. It you have a wifi account, they changed customer info with fake credit card, and other info to protect the customer if your device was stolen. When they put it Into affect, they did change your info not realizing when the charge came due again, the credit card information was wrong for the account, so you had to reactivate again. I guess it looked good on paper.
Same thing happened to me.
I has the same problem getting into our corporate account. Got logged in, but couldn't do anything.
Finally realized it was Pre-Order day and decided to bag it for a while.
I've always found the corporate pages to be slower than hell anyway, but swapping in a big change JUST before the heaviest day of the year? Amateurish. Firing offense. Clowns.
Now on ATT the option to upgrade devices is replaced with information on how to upgrade, which goes to a window that informs you they can't process the request at this time. Broken down, I think
I wonder who has acess to Leana's Account
I did, I honestly thought our account had been hacked. I after seeing someone elses name, I went to the main account overview to see what was going on. It then reverted back to my account, and I didn't even log out and back in.
ORDERED! ! ! !
At what point are we going to blame ATTFails on Apple? They keep going to this company over and over again. I know every single difficulty to deal with different carriers for Apple, but I'm to the point where I'd take an iPhone with a big red Verizon logo on it over this crap. Of course, the system pinged me and I'm currently an AT&T customer, but it did let me reserve a black one when I want white.
Ah, the joys of AT&T! rollseyes
I love this! Can't wait to listen to USP 2011! When will it be released?