Cellular and cell phone companies have a legal obligation to protect their customers from hackers. The Federal Communications Act requires telecommunications carriers to protect the confidentiality of their consumers’ personal information. Carriers must use reasonable measures to protect against unauthorized access to their consumers’ information.

When a carrier allows a sim swap without appropriately confirming the consumer’s identity, the carrier may be liable for any losses that follow. In many instances, a thief will call a carrier in the middle of the night pretending to be the customer and ask for help switching the customer’s sim card to a new phone. Once the carrier’s customer service makes the change, that thief has full access to the consumer’s phone and the personal information in the customer’s apps. The thief then begins changing passwords and emails and making withdrawal requests from the customer’s financial accounts.