How To Prevent Your Voicemail Being Hacked – Elf Knows It [ARCHIVED]
I don’t really like using the term ‘hacked’ in relation to accessing another persons voicemail, mainly because it’s not exactly hacking, it’s just using a default entry point that shouldn’t be there, similar to credit card companies stamping the default PIN for your credit card on the back of it! But none the less it’s wrong, and you should know how to prevent it.
How do people gain access?
On pretty much all networks, the default PIN for your voicemail is ‘0000’ and this is entered by pressing the ‘#’ key when listening to your greeting, once you punch in the ‘#’ key your are prompted for the PIN – ‘0000’ by default, then you are in, what you get after is the same as dialing your voicemail from your phone.
So all someone needs to do is hazard a guess that you haven’t changed your PIN and type in ‘0000’ and they’re in, with full access to all your private voicemails.
How can I prevent this?
The method for changing your PIN will vary for service providers, but it is usually easy to find if you dial into your voicemail on your phone and listen to the menu options.
Some tips on choosing a PIN
- Don’t use a birthday or address number
- Don’t use digits from your phone number
- Change your pin every few months or weeks
- Don’t tell people your PIN
- Don’t save your PIN in your contact list on your phone
- If you feel like someone could be listening to your messages, change your PIN straight away.
- Most importantly, change your PIN as soon as you get a new phone!
By following these few simple rules, and gaining an understanding of how the PIN//Voicemail system works, you can prevent people from ‘hacking’ into your voicemail and listening to your personal messages.
Do you have a PIN on your Voicemail? Did you know there even was one?? Let us know with a comment below, or share any tips you might have yourself!
