If you have a prepaid or post-paid wireless phone, law enforcement officials warn you could become a victim of the so-call “SIM swap” scam. You could not only lose your phone number but money as well.
What makes this fraud particularly scary is the fact that the scammer can steal your phone without ever touching it.
CTIA, a wireless industry trade group, says a criminal only needs to gather some personally identifying information about the victim – things like name, physical address, email address, and mobile phone number. Unfortunately, much of that information is available on the internet.
“Once the fraudster has this information, they may call your wireless provider and pretend to be you in order to transfer your phone number to a new SIM card and device,” the group warns.
A SIM card is a small memory card that fits into a mobile phone. It contains all the information about the mobile account, including the telephone number. Once a thief successfully transfers the phone number to a new device, the victim’s phone goes dead and the fraudster has access to a host of sensitive information.
A victim’s story
A report by WHBQ-TV in Memphis told the story of a local resident who said she contacted Cricket Wireless after getting a text about changes to her account. After that, her phone went dead.
Upon investigation, she discovered that another name had been added to her mobile phone account. After that, she learned that someone…
