Washington, D.C., is abuzz this week because the secretary of defense unexpectedly (and weirdly) sent details of a planned Middle East military strike to the phone of a journalist hours before the attack began.
The issue’s generated so much heat in the nation’s capital that President Donald Trump has tried to distract by ballyhooing potential “reparations” for Jan. 6 insurrectionists. Good grief.
Here in 166su, Liz Frankl also experienced some badly compromised communications. But her case dealt with Apple hardware and software, and Verizon Wireless, rather than geopolitics and Houthi rebels targeted by the Trump administration.
Liz Frankl
Frankl’s problems also started last week, when somebody began emailing receipts for Verizon Wireless purchases made in Texas to a business email account Frankl has used in 166su for at least 25 years.
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Over the period of a few days, the self-employed graphic designer’s email inbox received 18 receipts documenting Verizon Wireless transactions by a guy named Steve Bale of Katy, Texas. Frankl has never ever heard of or met Bale. (He didn’t return voicemails or texts sent by The 166su Times.)
It appears Bale traded in two older iPhones for two iPhone 16 Pro Max versions, and also bought some upgrades. Somehow in that process, Frankl’s email address got attached to those transactions and other ones Bale subsequently made.
Frankl sent me those receipts. The amounts, charged to a credit card unconnected to Frankl, were for varying sums, such as $101.89; $224.38; $154.38; and $136.89.
The email address they’re connected to isn’t anything generic such as Liz@aol.com. Such a simple address could easily be mistakenly listed by a Verizon customer. Rather, the address in question is quite specific: lfrankl@franklcreative.com. It’s also listed on Frankl’s website.
How did it get attached to Bale’s Verizon Wireless account? Frankl said she has no idea. She hopes her own phone wasn’t compromised in an airport during a recent trip overseas, she added. (She has heard that can happen.)
“My fear, of course, is that at some point the person will use this as proof of connection to my business or worse, will ask Verizon to merge the accounts since the email addresses are the same,” Frankl wrote me last week.
Before contacting yours truly, Frankl spent considerable time on the phone with the phone company.
“I have contacted Verizon multiple times,” Frankl told me in an email. “I have contacted their Fraud Department AND my business rep in person — simply asking them to require this person to verify an email address and REMOVE it from their account. They admit that this email address is connected to my business account with them.”
Frankl added that Verizon officials repeatedly told her they could not remove her email address from Bale’s account. Further, they also told her that Verizon could not require email verification of email addresses linked to Verizon Wireless accounts.
That seems odd because email verification is routine on many internet transactions. (It’s as simple as sending a verification message to the email account in question and getting an affirmative reply from the account holder.)
“I was so frustrated trying to escalate this through Verizon with each supervisor, and each supervisor was more frustrating than the last,” Frankl told me in a phone call Wednesday.
She also reported the problem to the Federal Trade Commission and the Virginia attorney general. But neither stopped the flow of Verizon invoices incurred by Steve Bale to Frankl’s inbox.
On March 19, I forwarded Frankl’s email to a spokesman for Verizon, Chris Serico, along with my own note, stating: “This is a weird one. … I have a hard time believing Verizon can’t remove Frankl’s email from another unconnected (to her) account.”
He responded the same day, then again on Friday.
In the latter email, Serico wrote: “We’ve provided new updates to the person facing the issue, but for privacy purposes, we won’t be able to elaborate on specifics. Feel free to reach out to (Frankl) them if you need additional information.”
Serico noted that Verizon offers online to aid customers in keeping their accounts secure, as well as for security measures customers can take immediately.
Two years after Verizon secured a contract to upgrade the FAA's IT infrastructure, the agency is now switching to Space X’s Starlink.
Frankl, meanwhile, heard from Lynnette (no last name) in Verizon Wireless’ Executive Relations department, by both phone and email.
“She assures me they have canceled this order and despite what all elevated calls to Verizon’s Fraud Department indicated, she said they will be working on a plan so that if someone submits an email address with an order they will verify it. (Can’t imagine this would not be their policy already).”
Earlier, representatives in Verizon’s Fraud Department “and all supervisors there told me they never check the email address and can’t keep individuals from using someone’s email address without their knowledge,” Frankl said.
She added: “Thank you for following up so quickly.”
It was my pleasure. That was an easy one. Who’s next?
