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Originally Posted by DiapDealer
This seems very unlikely to me. Can you please elaborate on how my landline number might be "hacked"? Without hacking my landline provider's system, just how would they change where my number is being forwarded to? And how would turning off call forwarding on my landline prevent someone who later hacks my landline account (or my landline provider's system) from re-enabling call-forwarding and doing whatever they want anyway? And what kind of accounts are vulnerable to being "stolen from" with just a phone number? Even to get the second token of a 2FA protected account forwarded to someone's smart phone from a hacked landline, they'd need to crack the first password.
I'm all for being safer with your data, but your scenario doesn't sound that probable to me. I just don't believe anyone is more (or less) at risk by having their landline forwarded.
You're better off realizing (and spreading the word) that companies such as Apple and Microsoft simply don't cold-call people to avoid this kind of scam.
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This actually happened to me. The provider was Frontier (formerly Verizon FIOS). How the hacker(s) got onto the Frontier system, I do not know. Once they got to my system, they used call forwarding to forward my phone number to their own smart phone (number). Then they attacked one of my retirement accounts at a big name discount brokerage. They first changed the email address to a "burner" email address of their own, and then tried to drain the account. The only thing that stopped them was the fact that they tried to pull out all the money almost immediately. That trigger the anti-fraud systems at the brokerage company (the last line of defence). I didn't know about the brokerage attack only when I received a paper "snail mail" notification.
My guess is that is came from a resume', I had sent out. (I was job hunting at the time.)
This was a very real occurrence. I checked with Frontier, and they immediately advised turning off call forwarding.