Aspects of the subject disclosure may include, for example, obtaining a preliminary transmission received from a first wireless access terminal of a wireless network, at a mobile terminal, wherein the obtaining of the preliminary transmission occurs before a successful completion of an attachment process between the mobile terminal and the first wireless access terminal, and wherein access to a network resource by the mobile terminal via the wireless network requires a successful completion of the attachment process. A physical relationship is determined between the mobile terminal and the first wireless access terminal according to the preliminary transmission, resulting in a determined physical relationship. The determined physical relationship is compared to a predetermined threshold value to obtain a comparison result and successful completion of the attachment process is prevented based on the comparison result indicating a suspect condition. Other embodiments are disclosed.