President Trump’s namesake cell phone provider and smartphone maker Trump Mobile is leaking customer data, including mailing addresses and email addresses, according to reports.
On Tuesday, YouTubers Coffeezilla and penguinz0, who both said they ordered Trump Mobile’s gold-colored T1 phone, said they had been alerted by a researcher who found the exposed data online.
“I know that because sadly I am one of those customers whose mailing address, email address, you know, everything short of credit card number is being leaked,” said Coffeezilla, who has risen to fame investigating crypto scams. “Do not order on trumpmobile.com unless you’re ready for your information to be leaked. It’s basically that bad.”
The two YouTubers said they ordered the T1 smartphone out of curiosity, not because they support the president and his business endeavors. Now, like other Trump Mobile customers, their information has been leaked.
They both said they were alerted of the leak by a source, who shared their personal information to prove they really had access to it. The researcher told them they were not able to get a hold of anyone at Trump Mobile, so the issue isn’t fixed yet. “All of us have been met with radio silence,” penguinz0 said.
Both YouTubers did not explain how hackers could access the data because they said it was very easy to do that, and the data is still available online.
Trump Mobile did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
According to the unique IDs in the leak, Coffeezilla said, it appears that only 30,000 people ordered the phone. That is a much lower number than expected. Last year, according to an estimate, there had been 590,000 preorders, with a cost of $100.
Trump Mobile was announced last year, with the promise of delivering a “Made in the USA” phone. As it turns out, according to NBC News, whose reporters got their hands on the device some nine months after it was supposed to be delivered, marketing materials now say the phone was “designed with American values in mind” and “shaped by American innovation.”
The Verge and others found that the phone sports an American flag with only 11 stripes instead of the dozen it should have, although it’s possible that the graphic designer intended the TRUMP MOBILE logo to be the 12th stripe. Some have also noted that the phone looks similar to a two-year-old HTC phone, suggesting it may just be a rebranded device.
The phone has been mired with issues since day one: 404 Media, for example, tried to order the T1 when it was announced and the order page failed and charged the wrong amount.
Source: TechCrunch
