'She did the right thing': Waukesha County woman narrowly avoids phone fraud -

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WAUKESHA COUNTY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- a Waukesha County woman is spreading awareness after almost becoming a victim of fraud. It's a scam that cellphone carriers say has been happening for years. Instead of stealing phones, these thieves are stealing phone numbers.

The Federal Communications Commission calls it "port-out fraud," a scam to hijack your cell phone number by porting - or moving - it from your phone provider to another.

"It never occurred to me that someone would try to steal my phone number," said Carrie, who did not want to share her last name, out of caution.

Carrie received a text from Verizon on Monday that said a "port request" was in process.

"I didn't really think that it was a big deal, because you get scam texts all the time," she said.

A few minutes