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.
