Consumer Alert: More bad news for T-Mobile customers. Have you frozen your credit yet?
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ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) ā T-Mobile now confirms the three Pās of their customer base are affected by this big breach ā past, present and prospective customers.
So far, T-Mobile has found that the personal information of more than 50 million folks who have done business with them is now for sale on the dark web.
Vice broke the news of the breach last weekend. At first, T-Mobile would only say that it was investigating. On Friday it confirmed more than 50 million customers were compromised and its investigation continues.
Here’s the breakdown. Of the customers affected, just over 13 million are current post-paid customers, which essentially means you pay for your usage at the end of the month as opposed to prepaid customers who pay for usage before it’s used.
More than 40 million victims are former and prospective customers, folks who applied for service. And about 850,000 prepaid customers are now exposed. But unlike most of the other victims, hackers did not get your most sensitive information like Social Security and driver’s license numbers.
For 13.1 million current customers, your name, address, birthday, phone, Social Security and driver’s license numbers are now for sale to the highest bidder.
For about 40 million past and prospective customers, your name, address, social security and driver’s license numbers were compromised. T-Mobile also now confirms the unique number that identifies your specific phone was also exposed in some cases.
The cell phone giant is still investigating, but as I’ve said all week, you shouldn’t wait for them to finish. I strongly recommend you take steps now to protect yourself. On Monday I provided directions for how to freeze your credit. On Tuesday my information concerned why you need two-step app-based authentication, as well as provided recommendations for apps.