Scammers didn’t hack systems says LIME

(CNS): In the wake of a text message sent directly to LIME customers' telephones across Cayman on Wednesday declaring that everyone had won $500,000 from scammers in Thailand, the local phone company said its systems had not been compromised. Although it appeared that private numbers of LIME customers had been hacked, LIME said this was not the case as the message came through to the local system via a recognized carrier and was delivered to customers' numbers by the company.

“We want to assure all LIME customers that based on our analysis our systems were not hacked,” said a spokesperson for LIME. “The text message came in from a carrier via a route that we recognized and therefore we delivered it.”

The firm said that all of its number ranges are published on the ICTA website, which means it is very easy for hackers to use that information to generate a list of numbers.

“However, following on from Wednesday we are now looking at some additional technology for this route type that will be able to recognize when messages of this nature are being sent to multiple numbers so it can be stopped and examined before being forwarded on or deleted,” LIME said Thursday.

The scam text followed the lines of the usual IT con telling recipients they had won $500,000 and needed to send their details to an email address to claim their prize.