Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
Recently, a Redditor with the username toastedsausageman shared a letter they claimed to have received by snail mail from T-Mobile. The letter alleged that their account had been involved in accessing websites hosting questionable material, including “sites promoting hacking activities” or “featuring fictional characters presented as underage”.
The post immediately sparked debate over whether this was a phishing scam or simply a karma-farming attempt, though many users chimed in to say they had received similar letters. Adding to the intrigue, the source email appeared to be legitimate, as the same address is referenced in an unrelated official court document.
As it turns out, it is indeed a fake. As noted by T-Mobile in a response to the report, T-Mobile confirmed that these letters aren’t real and do not originate from T-Mobile or reflect its policies or practices. As it states:
“We do not monitor or censor browsing activities, and like other providers, we use standard protections to block access to known malicious sites for security purposes. We take this kind of impersonation seriously and are continuing to investigate. In the meantime, our Care team is following up with customers who reached out to us.”
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There’s no word on how the culprits behind the letter scam actually obtained the information about T-Mobile users, or exactly how deep this hoax goes in terms of the number of people affected. For its part, T-Mobile says it is following up with any customers who have reached out about the issue.
While many of us were suspicious at the time due to the wording of the letter, there was considerable debate about the whole thing on Reddit. Many pointed to actual privacy policies, such as T-Mobile’s “Profiling and automated decisions,” believing that this could hint that such monitoring could technically be possible.
This incident wasn’t real, but could your carrier be watching you?
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