'Twitter Was Being Scammed $60M Per Year:' Elon Musk On Why 2FA Is Not Working For Some Users

Are you a Twitter user wondering why you are having problems logging into your accounts or changing passwords because of disruptions in two-factor authentication codes? Twitter chief Elon Musk has just cleared the air for you.

What Happened: During a live Spaces session early on Wednesday, Musk said that the microblogging site was being scammed "$60 million per year for SMS texts," not counting North America.

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Musk said that there are telecom operators who are not being "super honest" and are "gaming the system" to run two-factor authentication, or 2FA, SMS texts "over and over again." He added they created a zillion bot accounts to run up the tabs. 

Musk told the team to cut off telecom operators with fraud above 10%, which "turned out to be 390 telcos" outside North America. 

Why It's Important: Musk's statement comes after many users complained that they couldn't log in to Twitter because their 2FA SMS texts didn't work.

@Twitter customer service is so slow, and I cannot understand this issue.
Tried many times. I have another Twitter account into which I'm unable to log in. Every time I get this notification from my devices whenever I'm trying to log in to that account. I am stuck in a loop. pic.twitter.com/Tucix4Us6B

— Witty Mundus (@MundusGnosis) December 16, 2022

@Twitter what is this twitter, cannot log in into my real account. @PotatoTechi pic.twitter.com/XP5pF6WfLA

— AnuragS (@anu_da) December 16, 2022

"We are going back to telcos," said Musk, adding that Twitter told operators, "if you stop scamming us, then we'll gladly pay you some amount of the money." 

He said, "We'll pay 10% of the fraud, it's fine, but we won't pay 90% fraud."

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