Verizon has historically been one of the hardest targets for SIM swappers. Once they have control of the phone number, they can use it to reset the victims’ passwords on sensitive accounts like their email, or steal money from their online cryptocurrency wallets.įor years, telecom companies have been struggling to slow down these hacks, and users have been left alone in figuring out ways to protect themselves. Hackers usually impersonate the target and pretend they need to transfer their number to a new SIM card, or simply bribe telecom employees to achieve the same goal. These kinds of hacks are aimed at defeating two-factor authentication systems that rely on SMS, and they are relatively easy to pull off. Thousands of people across the United States have been victims of SIM swapping hacks, which are also called port out scams-an expression derived from the concept of porting a number from one carrier to another-and SIM hijacking.
Hopefully, T-Mobile and AT&T follow their lead.” Verizon did not respond to a request for comment inquiring about how the feature works, and instead linked us to its official support page.ĭo you work at Verizon or another wireless carrier? If you have any tips about SIM swapping or other hacks, using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 9, OTR chat at or email this user-controlled toggle can’t be overridden by a bribed customer service rep or access to a back-end dashboard, this would appear to solve the problem,” Michael Terpin, one of the most well-known victims of SIM swapping who is suing AT&T for damages, told Motherboard. In any case, this does in theory add an extra layer of security and makes it harder to pull off a SIM swapping attack. As the customer support rep said, Verizon employees can override this once the customer verifies themselves-meaning they have the ability to do it anyway if the hacker were to accomplish that.
When enabled, if someone impersonates the customer and tries to port out their number, Verizon notifies the customer via text message or email, attempting to verify that it’s really them. The feature is essentially “an extra layer of security” and “a freeze” on the number, as a Verizon customer support representative explained. A screenshot of the My Verizon app interface.
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