I got a free loaner phone once a few years back ("Samsung Ultimate Test Drive") which came with pre-activated mobile phone service and was very clearly re-using a phone number that someone else had quite recently actively been using.
While it was weird to get SMSes about SoCal drug deals, the strangest thing of all with that phone was opening the Lyft app and being automatically signed in to someone else's Lyft account on the basis of my auto-confirmed phone number. Their active credit card was linked to the account and I could take free rides!
(I didn't... but it was very hard to sign into a different Lyft account when the phone # was actively linked to another, live account.)
Is this because Samsung simply sent you a phone that hadn't been wiped and was still signed into all these accounts, or was it really just auto-signed in due to phone number? I did the Samsung Ultimate Test Drive as well and don't recall being auto-signed into anything (though I also got many SMSes and calls intended for the previous owner).
Well, when I got the device, the Lyft app was not installed. I visited the Play store, installed the Lyft app and ran it, and then: the Lyft app immediately signed me in, told me that my full name was Britney G-------, showed me "my" full e-mail address, and offered to let me book rides on her behalf, paying with her linked Visa card. It wasn't even clear how to switch accounts; it was like they were using the phone # as a primary key.
I sent Samsung some feedback about this but don't think the issue was on their side per se.
While it was weird to get SMSes about SoCal drug deals, the strangest thing of all with that phone was opening the Lyft app and being automatically signed in to someone else's Lyft account on the basis of my auto-confirmed phone number. Their active credit card was linked to the account and I could take free rides!
(I didn't... but it was very hard to sign into a different Lyft account when the phone # was actively linked to another, live account.)