SIM swapping issues continue to be a problem that many consumers experience everyday. Despite the numerous warnings that carriers send out to their customers, scammers continue to come up with new ways they can victimize people. 

Recently, The Mobile Report shared that a bad actor is using employee data from T-Mobile to victimize employees. Several Redditors have reported their experience of receiving texts with a cash offer in exchange for swapping SIMs. The T-Mobile employees who have shared their experience said that they were offered $300 per SIM swap. If they were okay with the rate, they were told to get in touch through Telegram. Since the texts came from various area codes, it was hard to block them. 

When asked how the bad actor got hold of the employees’ numbers, the texts revealed that it was “from the T-Mo employee directory.” It’s possible that they have live/current access to T-Mobile’s employee directory. But since the report shows some individuals affected by the text barrage are former employees, it might not be the case. 

Another possibility is that the data comes from the Connectivity Source breach. But since some of the data is not similar, it cannot be pinpointed as the source of the employees’ numbers. The report was able to hear back from T-Mobile, who responded with:

“We did not have a systems breach. We continue to investigate these messages that are being sent to solicit illegal activity. We understand other wireless providers have reported similar messages.”

As a customer, this doesn’t really affect you, but it’s important that you know the existence of this attack. If you received a sketchy call or text from someone claiming to be an employee, you should not trust in it right away. Also, you should activate SIM protection on your T-Mobile account. This is a great way you can protect your account from SIM Swapping attempts.

TL;DR: Always stay vigilant, even if the other party is claiming to be a T-Mobile rep. 

Source: The Mobile Report