A common criminal can steal your smartphone. A clever hacker can steal your mobile phone number –and do a lot of damage before you even realize what’s happened. It’s called SIM swapping.
Digital security expert Robert Siciliano, CEO of ProtectNowLLC.com, says the crooks contact your mobile carrier and trick them into moving your phone number onto their SIM card (the little card with a computer chip that enables the phone to connect to the wireless network).
“Once your SIM card is swapped out and the bad guy now has control over your SIM on a different phone, then your phone stops working as it should,” Siciliano said.
You can no longer make calls or get the text messages you would normally receive when you try to log into one of your accounts with two-factor authentication. Those codes now go to the SIM swap scammers.
“In order for a bad guy to receive your two factor authentication codes, they need to have an active SIM card that basically possesses your account number and your phone number, so they can get the actual text messages for the two-factor authentication. And once they accomplish that, they can reset the passcodes for all of your critical accounts,” Siciliano told me.
While still a relatively rare crime, the FBI is seeing an increase in SIM swap fraud.
“These days, if your phone suddenly goes black on you and it stops working, it stops communicating effectively, that might mean that there’s something wrong with your phone – or it’s a SIM swap.”
More Info from the FBI: Criminals Increasing SIM Swap Schemes to Steal Millions of Dollars from US Public
