Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
SIM-swapping is a growing form of identity theft that goes beyond hacking into an email or social media account. In this case, the thieves take over your phone number.
A subscriber identity module (SIM) was traditionally a small, removable card in your mobile phone that identified your phone number and authenticated your identity to a mobile network.
A SIM swap scam (also known as port-out scam, SIM splitting, [1] simjacking, and SIM swapping) [2] is a type of account takeover fraud that generally targets a weakness in two-factor authentication and two-step verification in which the second factor or step is a text message (SMS) or call placed to a mobile telephone.
For scams conducted via written communication, baiters may answer scam emails using throwaway email accounts, pretending to be receptive to scammers' offers. [4]Popular methods of accomplishing the first objective are to ask scammers to fill out lengthy questionnaires; [5] to bait scammers into taking long trips; to encourage the use of poorly made props or inappropriate English-language ...
However, the security of this scheme depends on the security of the mobile phone system. In South Africa, where SMS-delivered TAN codes are common, a new attack has appeared: SIM Swap Fraud. A common attack vector is for the attacker to impersonate the victim, and obtain a replacement SIM card for the victim's phone from the mobile network ...
SIM swaps are often carried out through social engineering: A cybercriminal calls a cell phone provider such as T-Mobile and convinces an agent to transfer over the control of a phone number to a ...
Starting from the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, Samsung phones and tablets contained a warning label stating that it would only operate with SIM cards from the region the phone was sold in. A spokesperson clarified the policy, stating that it was intended to prevent grey-market reselling, and that it only applied to the first SIM card inserted. [41]
As for how it happened, one member of the U.S.-based SIM-swapping gang, Emily Hernandez, walked into a Texas AT&T store and used a fake ID—one showing her picture but the name of an FTX employee ...