Early this morning I received the following e-mail:
Hi,
We wanted to let you know that your mobile number xxx xxxx xxx was registered and verified by another person on Facebook on Sunday, January 21, 2018 at 7:49am (UTC+02).
This mobile number is still associated with your account, so anyone you're sharing this number with may also see any SMS notifications that are sent to you.
If you would like to continue to have this mobile number associated with your account, there's nothing else you need to do.
If you no longer use or are not available at this mobile number, please update your contact information or remove this number from your account.
From the Facebook Team.
The profile belongs to a man. How he managed to have his new profile verified through my number is a question that I don't have an answer to. My son told me I could have activated it through some clever link, but I can't recall doing something like that. My daughter reckons my number may have been randomly selected by this person. Who knows? I reported him to FB security, and removed this number from my profile.
I suddenly had a few new contacts on Whatsapp, whom I'm sure are his family and/or friends. I managed to block them, though.
I got dressed straight away, went to our mall, and bought a new sim card, with a new number. I reset my phone, which was a schlep, but hopefully not a trace of my old number remains. He can do with my old number whatever he wants to. I destroyed my old sim card.
The moral of my story is: it happens, and it can happen to you too. Fortunately I didn't lose any money as I have nothing in my savings account at this stage. And I don't do Internet banking through my cell phone anyway. I'll go and change my number at the bank tomorrow morning.
Please, be vigilant, be prepared, and be safe.
Take care.
(photo via Google)
