Bribing an employee of the telecom operator.

Hackers can also find the personal information needed to defeat security through phishing emails, malicious software, or possession of stolen or leaked data. Often, security issues are easily found on social networks or through social engineering (psychological manipulation for scamming purposes). The problem is that when you call the company and pretend to be someone else, the checks are minimal and inadequate. Once the number has been transferred to the SIM card, the hacker can easily defeat two-factor authentication systems on different platforms, which require users to validate their identity with a series of digits sent by SMS.

SIM hacking consists of pretending to be the victim with his mobile phone operator to recover the use of his phone number. 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.

Just saying 🙄 Sim Swap ScamĪ SIM card exchange scam - also known as SIM card splitting, SIM card hijacking, SIM card hacking - is a fraud that occurs when scammers take advantage of a weakness in two-factor authentication and verification, where the second step is a text message (SMS) or a call to your mobile phone number. Getting an “anonymous” SIM card, or using a misregistered card, is overlooked as it is a criminal offense in some jurisdictions. Basing the identification of accounts on a phone number makes a lot of sense, mainly because a phone number is something you can quickly and cheaply acquire in many countries, and it guarantees the user a satisfactory way to confirm his identity.īut in some countries, getting a phone number is not an easy process and may involve proving not only your identity but also your address. What’s a Sim swapping scam?Īs you know, your phone number has become a way for many companies to confirm your identity (social networks, bank…). Indeed, we hadn’t discussed yet what SIM Swapping is, how to prevent it, and the alternative solutions. , for example), we mentioned double authentication and a reader of the blog (thanks to him!), asked us more information about Sim Swapping.

Prevent sim card hack