What Someone Can Do With Your Phone Number and How to Protect Yourself

We hand out our phone numbers constantly. Banks want them, stores want them, apps want them, and half the internet seems convinced it needs one before letting us create an account. At this point, you should probably assume your number has ended up in more places than you remember.

But that doesn’t mean anyone who finds it can hack your phone or empty your bank account. A phone number by itself is fairly limited. The problem is that it’s often attached to other important information, such as your name, email address, online accounts and, sometimes, much more personal information.

That’s why your phone number is worth treating like the personal informationit is. You don’t need to worry just because somebody has it, but you should understand what they can actually do with it, what signs may suggest something more serious is happening and how to make your number less...

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