Voicemail hacking. It sounds like something straight out of a conspiracy theory or a spy novel, but recent events in the UK have been a hit with anyone. Killed 13-year-old Hugh Grant may be a victim of voicemail eavesdropping or hacking.
Unfortunately, voicemail hacking is pretty easy to accomplish with a collection of personal information or a bit of social engineering. We can’t guarantee that these steps will make your voicemail untraceable, but they will help you keep unwanted people out of your personal business.
How to Hack VoiceMail?
You may not know this, but your voicemail can be accessed from any phone as long as you know what number to call. The number varies from carrier to carrier, but it’s easy to find online. Once hackers get hold of this number, they can start trying common passwords and personal information to try to access your voicemail.
If that fails, they can also pretend to be you and try to persuade the phone company to reset the password. Fortunately, this is becoming increasingly difficult to do as carriers request information such as the last four digits of your social security number, but it is not impossible.
How to Protect Your Voicemail
voicemail passwords
When you get your first cell phone, the company normally gives you a standard voicemail password. Most users change this, but you’re taking an unnecessary risk if you haven’t bothered to remove the standard password.
Too many users think there’s nothing important in their voicemail and choose an easy-to-remember password like repeating digits, plain, your birthday, or your ATM PIN. While these passwords are easy to remember, they leave your account vulnerable. There are numerous websites that offer common 4-digit and 6-digit cell phone voicemail passwords.
If you skipped your birthday, chances are pretty good that you used a variation of the top iPhone security codes as your voicemail password.
Instead of choosing the obvious, find a few easy-to-remember numbers that spell out something hidden. That means no child names, pet names, or anniversary dates.
If you want to add an additional layer of protection, many carriers can add a password to your account so that only authorized users can make changes to the account. To do this, call your carrier and ask for an account password. The process takes a few minutes and helps prevent a hacker from accessing the resource.
An even better option is to switch to Google Voice for your voicemail. After signing up for a free Google Voice account, you can forward your mobile phone’s missed calls to Google Voice. Assuming you have a strong password for your Google account, you have made your voicemail more secure than a 4-digit PIN.
You don’t need to change phone numbers or own a smartphone for this to work. just follow us Google Voice Voicemail instructions On Laptops to switch. As an added bonus, your voicemails will now be transcribed and emailed to you.
Why Should You Care?
You may not be a movie star or political official, but because we’ve given up landlines, we rely on our cell phones as our primary means of communication with so many people, organizations, and companies that we wouldn’t want them to be public. Whether it’s a bank message saying your loan has been declined or a voicemail from a medical professional, there are some things that shouldn’t be shared. If you take a few moments today, you can make it harder for someone to hack your voicemail and get your personal information.
Images: Voicemail indicator – salimfadhleyCommon Passwords – DocDroppers