Phone Number Leak: What You Need to Know to Stay Safe (2024)

FAQs

What are the dangers of leaking phone number? ›

A leaked phone number means that scammers may spam you with fake text messages that aim to steal your data and money or trick you into downloading malicious software onto the device. Harass you and your family.

How To Check If My Phone Number Is Leaked. Go to ID Protection Data Leak Checker and find out if your phone number appeared in any data leaks.

As with any privacy and security breach, it's important to take immediate action to secure your personal information and prevent further damage if your cellphone number has been found on the dark web.

Let your mobile carrier know right away if you think that your phone number may be hacked or compromised. Your provider can help you regain access to your phone or hacked SIM card, if that's the case. Most major carriers also offer spam and scam call blocking tools to reduce the amount of scam calls that you receive.

While phishing attacks can exploit vulnerabilities in your phone's messaging or email apps, they do not directly hack your bank account solely based on your phone number.

Can someone hack my phone from my number? You cannot directly hack a phone through a phone number, but it can be used as part of a social engineering attack, such as a SIM swap ploy or vishing attack. Still, even these techniques require more information or steps beyond just knowing your phone number.

Your phone number is an easy access point for scammers and identity thieves. Once scammers know your number, they can target you with phishing texts and calls, or trick you into downloading malware and giving up personal information.

Savvy scammers know that by hijacking your mobile phone number they can assume your identity, intercept security protocols sent to your phone, and gain access to your financial and social media accounts. One way to hijack your phone number is through a porting-out scam.

How can you avoid spam or scam robocalls? If your phone number has been leaked in a data breach, you're likely to experience more suspicious activity than usual. One option is to change your phone number.

How do you see if your phone number is on a spam list? ›

Changing your phone number in combination with shedding unnecessary online accounts may prevent you from being further targeted by criminals.

Things You Should Know

Ignore calls from 3-digit international area codes that are likely to be scams, including 232, 268, 284, 473, 664, 649, 767, 809, 829, 849, and 876. Be wary of calls from unknown numbers with your own area code. These may be international caller ID spoof scams that appear local.

Look out for issues with receiving and sending text messages and calls, loss of access to your online account with your phone carrier, service change notifications from your carrier, or any other unusual activity.

Your phone number is an easy access point for scammers and identity thieves. Once scammers know your number, they can target you with phishing texts and calls, or trick you into downloading malware and giving up personal information.

With just your phone number, hackers can send you phishing texts and calls, flood your phone with spam calls, spoof your phone number, swap your SIM card and even steal your personal information. Continue reading to learn more about what hackers can do with your phone number and tips for keeping yourself safe.

Your phone can't be hacked from your number alone, although there are some zero-click attacks that can install malware even if you don't answer a call or click a text. Usually, to hack a phone, scammers need targets to take some action, like clicking a malicious link or downloading an infected app.

Key Points In This Article: Two-Party Consent Required: It's illegal to eavesdrop on or record any confidential conversations, including phone calls and digital communications, without consent from all parties, making California a “two-party consent” state.