T-Mobile is sending a mass text warning to users regarding phone hijacking scam
T-mobile users are expected to receive text warnings in regards to the “industry-wide” phone hijacking scam. Hackers and cybercriminals are targeting people’s phone numbers to use for any kind of scams. Like for example, using those information to access their bank and social media accounts.
If you’re from the United States and a T-mobile subscriber, you may have received messages that is somewhat alarming. But it’s actually a great way to warn people not to engage in such activities to prevent from hacking incidents.
These alerts are actually from legitimate T-mobile company.
They confirmed it to Motherboard on Monday. A company representative said that T-mobile is messaging its “entire post-paid customer base”. But some may have yet to receive it due to a lot of subscribers and can’t be done all at once.
“Phone number port out scam” is a vague term but it refers to a relatively simple and dangerous hack. The process here is that, the attacker will call T-mobile or even other cell phone provider. Or some may go to a store and impersonates the target victim. He will request for a new SIM card for the victim’s phone number. The same process works also by porting the phone number to another provider. It will give the attacker access to the victim’s phone number.
Once the provider issues a new SIM card to the hacker, he will have the opportunity to access the victim’s account. All information and account that are linked to the number will be accessed. Once the hacker has already controlled the phone number, he can actually change the passwords of the accounts. It’s actually very easy, they can simply ask the bank for a new password or a reset link via text. This attack has also been called “SIM hijacking”.
These scams have been around for quite some time now. And a lot of people have already been a victim of it. It’s very alarming and providers may not be able to protect you enough. The thing you can do here is not to link any important accounts on your phone number. That’s the safest way not to become a victim of this heinous act.
