Verizon has notified some prepaid customers that their accounts were compromised and their phone numbers potentially hijacked via SIM swaps.
We’re told that fraudsters somehow got hold of the last four digits of those people’s credit card numbers – perhaps by exploiting some part of Verizon’s online services – and used that information to gain control of their accounts.
From there, the crooks could access the personal info in an account and perform a SIM swap. That effectively transfers the victim’s phone number to another person’s device, allowing that stranger to use the number and any one-time security codes sent to it to hijack the victim’s other online accounts.
“Between October 6 and October 10, 2022, a third party actor accessed the last four digits of the credit card used to make automatic payments on your account,” the mobile network operator said in a letter sent to prepaid customers.
“Using the last four digits of that credit card, the third party was able to gain access to your Verizon account and may have processed an unauthorized SIM card change on the prepaid line that received the SMS linking to this notice,” the alert continued.
