SIM swap fraud occurs when scammers take advantage of a weakness in two-factor authentication and verification and use your phone number to access your account.
SIM swapping happens when scammers contact your mobile provider and trick them into activating a SIM card that the fraudsters have. Once this occurs, the scammers have control over your phone number. Anyone calling or texting this number will contact the scammers’ device, not your smartphone.
This is known as SIM swap fraud, and it means scammers could potentially enter your username and password when logging onto your bank’s website. The bank or any other service will then send a code by text — two-factor authentication — to your smartphone number, a code that you’ll then have to enter to access your online account. The problem? After a SIM swap, that number now goes to the smartphone or other device possessed by scammers. They can then use that code to enter your bank account.
Fortunately, you can protect yourself against SIM swapping. It’s all about preventing scammers from finding out what logins and passwords you use to access your online bank or credit card accounts. And it helps, too, to look out for the most common warning signs of a SIM swap scam.
The most important thing to note is to check if you have lost your mobile signal. Whenever a duplicate SIM gets inserted, the victim’s SIM card completely loses the mobile signal as it loses its network access and hence, cannot be used to call or send a text message. If such a thing happens, contact your mobile provider and ask them to deactivate your SIM.
Insider threats aside, the most effective things you can do to prevent fraudulent SIM swaps from happening on your account are:
Step 1
Limit the amount of personal data you post online. Educate yourself to avoid all types of scam!
Step 2
If you are using SMS\Text authentication to gain access to any online accounts, change this to email or Google Authenticator. If the platform does not allow this, seriously consider shifting to another one that does.
Step 3
Never reply to any emails asking for information such as your email address, SSN, or any other personally identifiable information.
Step 4
If you receive a call asking for personal information or any other sensitive information, do not provide it. The fraudster might be pretending to be calling from your bank, crypto exchange or any other service.
Step 5
Some mobile operators require a PIN to be able to perform a SIM swap. Use a hard-to-guess number or phrase as your PIN. Avoid using birthdays or phrases such as your first name or names of pets. And never post this PIN anywhere online.
