Tracfone Message
Thousands of TracFone, Straight Talk numbers stolen — what you need to practice
Updated with comment from Verizon.
Bad people have stolen, or "ported out," the cellphone numbers of about half dozen,000 customers of TracFone, Straight Talk, Full Wireless and possibly other prepaid cellular carriers in the past couple of months, co-ordinate to reports today (January. 26) in The Wall Street Journal and The Verge.
The to a higher place brands, plus Net10 Wireless, Simple Mobile and Walmart Family Mobile, all operate under the umbrella of TracFone Wireless, itself a newly acquired Verizon subsidiary as of November 2021. It's non yet clear whether customers of the latter three brands were also afflicted.
"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 proper name, address, PIN lawmaking, account number, underground question (merely non answer) and electronic mail accost to the extent you provided us with such information."
TracFone'southward bulletin, however, just hints at the fact that losing a cellphone number to thieves can lead to a nightmarish spiral of account thefts and monetary loss.
Tom'south Guide has reached out to Verizon for comment, and we will update this story when we receive a answer.
What y'all demand to do if you're a TracFone customer
If you accept an account with whatsoever of the six brands mentioned to a higher place, this is a potentially bad situation. Yous should immediately alter your carrier-account Pivot and, if possible, the account's secret question and answer. Links to exercise so via a web browser are embedded in the TracFone security alert page.
TracFone's security alert said information technology had tried to contact all affected customers, "only given the nature of this activity, letters to impacted mobile phone numbers may no longer exist accessible by some customers."
In other words, some customers might not even exist told their accounts have been stolen because they won't be able to sent or receive text messages or phone calls.
"If you feel a sudden loss of service, or are having difficulty with a number transfer," TracFone said, "please contact client service at 1-800-353-1842."
What y'all need to practise if you know or suspect your TracFone number has been stolen
Unfortunately, for those customers whose numbers take indeed been stolen, the situation may become a lot worse. That'southward considering cellphone numbers are unfortunately now used as a means of verifying your identity.
If you've been direct contacted about this issue by Net10 Wireless, Simple Mobile, Direct 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 have that may apply your cellphone number as a fashion to verify your identity.
This is considering many online services, including some banks, social networks, cryptocurrency exchanges and e-mail providers, volition ostend business relationship-password changes only subsequently the legitimate user supplies a temporary code that has been texted to them.
Many implementations of two-factor authentication use similar texted codes to ostend the identity of a person logging into an account from a new device or location.
All such business relationship-verification processes are jeopardized by port-out scams. If crooks have the phone numbers, then they can change the passwords on many of the number holders' online accounts.
Of course, if the crooks take already inverse the password on an account, then yous won't be able to change information technology yourself. You lot'll have to contact the online service via telephone or email and explain what happened. Be prepared to jump through hoops to verify your identity.
Cellphone numbers are meant to be temporary and transferable, and wireless carriers treat them as such. Simply online services ofttimes regard cellphone numbers as fixed points of personal identity when they shouldn't be seen that way at all. That's not the carriers' fault, but it is the reality.
How this happened is a mystery
TracFone'due south posting didn't mention how the crooks were able to take over 6,000 accounts, and that number actually comes from what a Verizon spokeswoman told the Journal.
Number port-out scams are oftentimes carried out by calling customer-service representatives at wireless carriers and convincing or tricking them into transferring phone 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 money 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 "we have no reason to recall that this was caused by anybody on the inside."
But, TracFone may not have been as diligent as information technology could accept been when it received a number-transfer request.
Many of the stolen TracFone numbers appear to take been transferred to Metro, a rival low-cost prepaid cellular service operated by T-Mobile. Information technology'due south not articulate if there were any "SIM swap" incidents, in which a cellular number is transferred to a new SIM carte du jour on the aforementioned carrier.
A spokeswoman for that visitor told The Verge that "there is no fraud or information breach of any sort on the T-Mobile side of these port-outs."
If there's a silver lining in this potentially horrible situation, information technology's that the incidents take forced Verizon to quickly beef upwards the security of TracFone's number-transfer procedure.
"Since uncovering this fraudulent activity, we have made enhancements to improve the security of your mobile business relationship," says the TracFone security discover.
"For case, when a request to transfer a number is made, we will send a text-message notification to your device to alert you to the request. This bulletin will include the number you lot should phone call if you did non authorize the transfer."
"Additionally, nosotros will besides transport you lot a text message containing a unique code (a 'Number Transfer Pin' or 'Port Pin') that must be provided to the new carrier before a transfer can exist completed," the bulletin added.
"This code should only exist provided to your new carrier when you are making your transfer request. We volition never call you and inquire you for this lawmaking."
That's commendable, but other cellular carriers, such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon itself, have had such safeguards confronting 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 post-obit comment:
"Unwanted or forced number transfer (too known as port-out fraud) is an outcome that affects the entire wireless communications industry. That'due south why nosotros piece of work with others in the industry, our merchandise association and law enforcement to address these issues every bit they arise. Stopping these fraudulent activities is as of import to TracFone Wireless, Inc. as it is to our customers.
"We recently became enlightened of bad actors fraudulently transferring, or porting out, some TracFone mobile telephone numbers to other carriers. Since uncovering this activity, we made security enhancements to customers' mobile accounts and are working directly with customers who have been impacted."
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/tracfone-mass-port-out-number-theft
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