[landmass]

That password thing isn't as useful as I'd hoped. Mine is maybe 20 digits and I use it frequently when I'm calling my phone carrier for routine activities - they do check it.

For traveling overseas I needed a different SIM card and bought one at a local store (to be repaid by my carrier). The clerk at the store did not need my password because I showed him my valid identification. Password was useless in this case.

Not counting fake IDs that get past clerks, a few years ago Krebs On Security noted that the normal bribe at a phone kiosk was $85 to do the SIM swap illegally.

[chatmasta]

Even without a bribe, you still have to trust the minimum wage worker at the store. Motivated criminals or organized gangs could send people to apply to jobs at mobile providers. Come to think of it, that's probably already happening... spies too...

There's a big gap between the high trust and low salary that companies give their frontline employees. And despite (or because of) that gap, they're not motivated to do extensive background checks.

But the average employee at the Verizon kiosk in the local mall is arguably handling more sensitive data than an employee at the passport office in the State Department.