TracFone users found that their numbers were switched to different carriers
When it comes to signing up for a carrier, you’d typically want to stay on that carrier. A bunch of TracFone users found that they don’t quite have that luxury. For some reason, their numbers suddenly switched to another carrier without their consent. TracFone posted an update on that matter and chalked it up to external forces. According to the company, “bad actors” infiltrated the system and gained access to a “limited number” of customers’ information. This limited number is on the scale of the thousands, unfortunately.
The bad actors also got valuable information on customers
What’s also unfortunate is that the bad actors might have gotten access to customers’ names, home addresses, email addresses, account PINs, security questions (but not the answers), and other sensitive information. That sort of information is dangerous in the hands of any malicious person. TracFone isn’t just one carrier, it’s an umbrella service that encompasses other services. It has Straight Talk, Simple Mobile, Net10 Wireless, Walmart’s FamilyMobile, and Total Wireless under its wing. This means that if you have any of those services, you will need to get into your account. You’ll want to change your account PIN, security question, email address, and other information.
TracFone is working to fix this
The company is currently tightening up security in light of this scenario. On the page, the company stated that when it gets a request to transfer a number, it will send a text message to the original number to verify. The company will provide a phone number to call if the user has no knowledge of the request. Also, if a person wants to transfer a number, TracFone will give the user a special code. Right now, those seem to be the two main things that the company is doing, but it might do more as time goes on. Since it’s just happened recently, there’s not much information on how the accounts were affected or if there was any damage done. If you use one of those carriers, it’s best to change your account information as soon as you can.
