3 ms·
Most countries have number portability laws now that say the current provider has to release the number. They can't even hold it over an unpaid debt. Worse, a
by nikcub 10y ago
Most countries have number portability laws now that say the current provider has to release the number.
They can't even hold it over an unpaid debt. Worse, a lot of these laws have government SLAs in them that say x% of transfers have to happen within 2-3 hours (usually 90-99%)
There is zero incentive from any party to add friction to the process for authentication purposes
It really got easy when I noticed the process was automated by a lot of providers a few years ago. I really don't think there was any human oversight on many of these transfers (perhaps a rubber stamp from a cheap offshore pair of eyes for compliance purposes)
- phicoh 10y agoThe last time I transferred my mobile number, the telco wanted to have the IMSI as well. Then what my phone reported was not what they wanted, so it took a while to sort that out. But it seems secure enough. It is not easy to get an IMSI for a random phone number.
- lukego 10y ago> It is not easy to get an IMSI for a random phone number This is easy if you have an SS7 network connection. Comparable to the difficulty of resolving a DNS name to an IP address using an internet connection.