evidence: The criminal might also be able to use your number — and the access it gives him to your texts and, possibly, email messages — to gain access to your online financial and social media accounts. The con artist might then be able to drain your bank account or run up fraudulent online purchases with your credit card account. [...] Scammers armed with enough of your personal information can call a cellphone provider and request that it ports — or moves — your phone number from your current provider. The scammer would then gain access to your phone number and could use it to reset the passwords or other credentials to your online financial accounts. You might not notice this scam has happened until you try to use your cellphone and realize that you no longer have service. [...] Once you do this, you are taken to a new website, one that again looks like it belongs to a financial institution or service provider. This website asks you to provide key financial or personal information such as your Social Security numbers, passwords, birthdate, address, or account numbers. Once you provide this information, thieves can use it to take control of your cellphone number. And once thieves have this, they can read your texts and emails and, possibly, access your online bank accounts and run up fraudulent charges on your credit cards.