What is SIM swapping and why it can be dangerous
Unfortunately, SIM swapping is often disregarded in light of the ever-increasing dangers posed by phishing, malware, and ransomware. To gain access to your financial information, cybercriminals may create a copy of your mobile SIM card and use it to bypass your two-factor authentication.
The SIM card is essential for What is SIM swapping to work and can be obtained by impersonation by a cybercriminal. All that’s needed to make a copy of the victim’s card is their personal information, such as their full name, ID, phone number, etc. The customer can then get in touch with your mobile service provider by calling them, sending an email, or visiting their website.
If the mobile provider is lax about checking the ID of the user to whom the SIM card is issued, it’s easy for a fraudster to impersonate a victim. Giving another SIM card out carelessly makes it easy for someone with malicious intent to cause you harm.
After purchasing a second SIM card, the hacker then moves it to another device. When someone replaces a victim’s SIM card, they gain access to all of the information stored on the victim’s original SIM card, including all of their call and text logs.
You would be mistaken to think that a one-time password (OTP) that only you have access to is necessary to complete a financial transaction or transfer. And if cybercriminals get their hands on your financial information, they can move your money around to any account they want.
What is SIM swapping and why it’s dangerous
What is SIM Swapping: Tips to Stay Safe
What is SIM swapping cyber security experts have some tips to stay safe from the threat of SIM swapping.
- The most important thing to remember is to check if your mobile signal has gone out. Whenever a duplicate SIM is inserted, the victim’s SIM card completely loses the mobile signal. However, loses its network access and hence, cannot use for calling or sending text messages. If this happens, immediately contact the authorities and ask them to deactivate your SIM.
- You need to be very careful about what personal information you provide to a website. Try not to give your personal details on any website and keep them to a minimum.
- Before entering your personal information on any website, make sure it is secure and reliable.
- You should also check if the connection is secure (padlock symbol in the address bar, URLs beginning with https://, etc). To ensure that the link leads to the correct website.
- Be aware of phishing emails and pay attention to some of the tell-tale signs. Such as spelling errors, incorrect domain names, suspicious email attachments, etc.
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