Or, they may claim that they need help switching to a new phone. This ports your telephone number to the fraudster’s device containing a different SIM. They then ask the customer service representative to activate a new SIM card in the fraudster’s possession.

The scammers call your mobile carrier, impersonating you and claiming to have lost or damaged their (your) SIM card. To steal your number, scammers start by gathering as much personal information on you as they can get and engaging in a bit of social engineering. So having control over your cellphone number would be valuable to fraudsters. Without a SIM card, your GSM phone wouldn’t be authorized to use a mobile network. Cellphone subscriber identity module (SIM) cards are the storage for user data in Global System for Mobile (GSM) phones. How do SIM swapping scams work?Ī SIM swap scam - also known as SIM splitting, simjacking, sim hijacking, or port-out scamming - is a fraud that occurs when scammers take advantage of a weakness in two-factor authentication and verification in which the second step is a text message (SMS) or call to your mobile phone number.įirst, some SIM-card basics. That way you can help protect yourself against this type of fraud - or recognize if you’ve become a victim. It’s a good idea to learn about of SIM card swapping. Your bank then sends an access code to your cellphone for you to complete the log-in process.īut what if fraudsters are able to change the SIM card connected to your mobile number? That would give them control over that number - and they’d receive the access code to your account. That means you begin to access your account by entering your user name and password. You might try to access one of your bank accounts that uses text-based two-factor authentication. In a successful SIM swap scam, cybercriminals could hijack your cell phone number and use it to gain access to your sensitive personal data and accounts.

SIM swapping relies on phone-based authentication. The fraud is known as SIM swapping, and it can be used to take over your financial accounts.

Prevent sim card hack