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T-Mobile does not allow Account Takeover Protection on prepaid plans

8 points by cyberlurker ↗ HN
T-mobile, victim of a recent large data breach, provides an ambiguous feature called "Account Takeover Protection". This feature is intended to protect against SIM swaps.

https://www.t-mobile.com/support/plans-features/account-takeover-protection

There are a few issues I want to raise attention to:

1. TMO does not describe what these protections are. 2. The feature is Opt-in for every line on a plan. This requires starting the click through process multiple times per #. 3. The feature is unavailable to prepaid customers.

Why make this feature opt-in? Why exclude this feature from prepaid plans? These are abysmal security practices. Just because we are desensitized to these features doesn't mean we should ignore the bad practices.

1 comment

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[dead] 99mans
> Why make this feature opt-in?

Because of support costs.

> Why exclude this feature from prepaid plans?

Because prepaid plans are not tied to IDs, so validating identity to "unlock" your prepaid account proves difficult.

> These are abysmal security practices.

As a T-Mobile prepaid customer, I agree. I have emailed their CEO and actually got a response back when I shared my feedback. They were helpful, but that was after I threatened a lawsuit, so YMMV.