Normally when you switch cellular carriers, you bring your phone number with you—a process called “porting.” When you port out your number from one carrier to another, this shuts down your current account and opens another.

With a port-out scam, scammers exploit this process by using phished or stolen account information to do the same without your authorization.

Depending on your carrier, all a scammer needs for a port-out scam is your: