[arzel]

The information you obtain from vulnerabilities like these are used to obtain “original” social media accounts, and are then sold for a lot of money. To define what “original” is, take for instance “@shawn” on Instagram or Twitter. When these people target celebrities, they are mainly looking for a laugh and believe their “method” is about to be patched.

For example, T-Mobile and Verizon vulnerabilities are used to SIM swap and get around 2FA on instagram or twitter. Usually, they first try to find an employee who works at the store and has access to the database, before going through all the trouble of finding a vuln.

This has been an “underground” space for quite some time, but is slowly coming to light.

Source: I use to be in this space and made so much money off original usernames. To give you an idea of what a username goes for, I sold the Instagram @b*ss for $20,000.

[komali2]

How do users in this space securely transfer money without the FBI kicking down their door the next day?

[shawn]

Wow, this is a fascinating answer. Thanks for sharing.

[lawnchair_larry]

How did you get that username?