Joe Maring / Android Authority
TL;DR
- T-Mobile sent a text about “Authorized Users” that some customers mistook as a fraud warning.
- It was confirmed to be a mass informational campaign, not an unauthorized purchase attempt.
- It’s not the first eyebrow-raising SMS from the carrier this month.
If you’re on T-Mobile, you might be starting to get a bit concerned about the carrier’s comms strategy. Following a security-related text from the carrier earlier this month that looked scammy but was real, another mass SMS campaign has caused fresh anxiety among some users.
As The Mobile Report outlines, customers are receiving texts that begin with the line: “Other users on your account don’t have permissions for selfservice access.” The message goes on to explain how you can designate “Authorized Users” who are allowed to get support, make purchases, or upgrade devices.
The mass SMS could have been worded better.
Legitimate as the message is, that opening line reads quite a lot like a fraud warning. Some T-Mobile subscribers took the text as a sign that someone had already tried to make unauthorized changes to their account. Given the company’s history of data breaches, it’s not hard to see why the alarm bells went off. One customer even told The Mobile Report they rushed home to check their account, assuming the worst.
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In reality, this was simply an informational push. By default, only the primary line on a T-Mobile account can make account-level changes. Other lines are limited to logging into the T-Life app or My T-Mobile, without purchase or upgrade privileges. The text campaign was meant to tell account holders they can expand that access by marking other lines as Authorized Users. Needless to say, the phrasing left much to be desired.
Making matters worse, a screenshot shared with The Mobile Report shows T-Mobile support staff initially telling customers the message wasn’t legitimate, highlighting a breakdown in internal communication. That confusion only amplified the fear.
To be clear, nobody is breaking into your account when you see this text. It was a poorly worded mass campaign, not evidence of fraud. Still, paired with T-Mobile’s shaky security reputation and the earlier PIN-reset text, we can only hope the carrier takes a fresh look at how it communicates with its subscribers.
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