Thousands of TracFone, Straight Talk numbers stolen — what you need to do
Thousands of TracFone, Straight Talk numbers stolen — what you lot demand to do
Updated with comment from Verizon.
Bad people take stolen, or "ported out," the cellphone numbers of about 6,000 customers of TracFone, Direct Talk, Full Wireless and perhaps other prepaid cellular carriers in the past couple of months, according to reports today (Jan. 26) in The Wall Street Periodical and The Verge.
The above brands, plus Net10 Wireless, Unproblematic Mobile and Walmart Family Mobile, all operate under the umbrella of TracFone Wireless, itself a newly acquired Verizon subsidiary as of November 2021. It'south not yet articulate whether customers of the latter 3 brands were also affected.
"We were recently made enlightened of bad actors gaining access to a limited number of customer accounts and, in some cases, fraudulently transferring, or porting out, mobile telephone numbers to other carriers," said an undated security alert posted on the TracFone Wireless website.
"These bad actors may have had access to your name, accost, Pivot lawmaking, account number, secret question (but not answer) and email accost to the extent yous provided us with such information."
TracFone'due south message, however, merely hints at the fact that losing a cellphone number to thieves can lead to a nightmarish spiral of account thefts and monetary loss.
Tom's Guide has reached out to Verizon for comment, and nosotros volition update this story when we receive a answer.
What you need to do if you're a TracFone customer
If you take an account with any of the six brands mentioned to a higher place, this is a potentially bad situation. You should immediately change your carrier-account PIN and, if possible, the business relationship'southward surreptitious question and answer. Links to do so via a web browser are embedded in the TracFone security alert page.
TracFone'due south security alarm said it had tried to contact all affected customers, "but given the nature of this activity, letters to impacted mobile telephone numbers may no longer be attainable by some customers."
In other words, some customers might not even be told their accounts have been stolen because they won't exist able to sent or receive text messages or phone calls.
"If y'all experience a sudden loss of service, or are having difficulty with a number transfer," TracFone said, "please contact customer service at 1-800-353-1842."
What you need to do if you know or suspect your TracFone number has been stolen
Unfortunately, for those customers whose numbers have indeed been stolen, the situation may get a lot worse. That's because cellphone numbers are unfortunately now used as a means of verifying your identity.
If you've been directly contacted about this consequence by Net10 Wireless, Simple Mobile, Straight Talk, Total Wireless, TracFone or Walmart Family Mobile — or your service on one of those carriers suddenly no longer works — then you need to change the passwords on any online accounts you lot have that may use your cellphone number every bit a fashion to verify your identity.
This is because many online services, including some banks, social networks, cryptocurrency exchanges and email providers, will confirm business relationship-password changes merely after the legitimate user supplies a temporary lawmaking that has been texted to them.
Many implementations of two-cistron authentication use similar texted codes to ostend the identity of a person logging into an account from a new device or location.
All such account-verification processes are jeopardized by port-out scams. If crooks have the phone numbers, then they can alter the passwords on many of the number holders' online accounts.
Of course, if the crooks take already inverse the countersign on an account, and so you won't exist able to change it yourself. You'll accept to contact the online service via telephone or e-mail and explain what happened. Be prepared to bound through hoops to verify your identity.
Cellphone numbers are meant to exist temporary and transferable, and wireless carriers treat them every bit such. But online services often regard cellphone numbers equally stock-still points of personal identity when they shouldn't be seen that way at all. That'southward not the carriers' fault, but it is the reality.
How this happened is a mystery
TracFone'south posting didn't mention how the crooks were able to take over 6,000 accounts, and that number really comes from what a Verizon spokeswoman told the Periodical.
Number port-out scams are oft carried out by calling customer-service representatives at wireless carriers and convincing or tricking them into transferring telephone numbers to other devices. In some instances, carrier personnel have been bribed to transfer numbers, specially when the number belongs to a person who has a lot of coin in the bank or in online cryptocurrency accounts.
We don't know whether either of those scenarios happened in this case, and the Verizon spokeswoman told the Journal that "nosotros have no reason to think that this was caused by anybody on the inside."
But, TracFone may not take been as diligent equally it could have been when it received a number-transfer request.
Many of the stolen TracFone numbers appear to have been transferred to Metro, a rival depression-cost prepaid cellular service operated by T-Mobile. It'southward not articulate if there were any "SIM swap" incidents, in which a cellular number is transferred to a new SIM menu on the aforementioned carrier.
A spokeswoman for that company told The Verge that "at that place is no fraud or data breach of whatsoever sort on the T-Mobile side of these port-outs."
If there's a silver lining in this potentially horrible situation, it's that the incidents accept forced Verizon to chop-chop beefiness upward the security of TracFone'south number-transfer procedure.
"Since uncovering this fraudulent activeness, we have made enhancements to meliorate the security of your mobile account," says the TracFone security notice.
"For example, when a request to transfer a number is made, we will ship a text-message notification to your device to warning you to the request. This bulletin volition include the number yous should phone call if you did not authorize the transfer."
"Additionally, we will also send you a text message containing a unique lawmaking (a 'Number Transfer PIN' or 'Port PIN') that must exist provided to the new carrier before a transfer can be completed," the message added.
"This code should only be provided to your new carrier when you are making your transfer request. We will never call you and enquire you for this code."
That'due south commendable, but other cellular carriers, such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon itself, have had such safeguards against port-out scams in place for years. The real question is why TracFone plainly didn't.
Update: Response from Verizon
A Verizon spokesperson responded to our query with the following comment:
"Unwanted or forced number transfer (besides known equally port-out fraud) is an upshot that affects the entire wireless communications industry. That's why nosotros work with others in the industry, our trade association and police enforcement to accost these issues as they arise. Stopping these fraudulent activities is as important to TracFone Wireless, Inc. as it is to our customers.
"We recently became aware of bad actors fraudulently transferring, or porting out, some TracFone mobile phone numbers to other carriers. Since uncovering this activeness, we fabricated security enhancements to customers' mobile accounts and are working direct with customers who have been impacted."
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/tracfone-mass-port-out-number-theft
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