He Sim Swapping o Exchange of the SIM card of the phone is a fraudulent practice not as well known as phishing (identity supplant), but with the potential to be more harmful and harmful to the user. In this type of scam, in addition, the deceived to fall into it is not the victim but Your telephone operator, since it is the one who authorizes the duplicate of your Sim card to the scammer. Its objective is to intercept sensitive communications, mainly authentication codes sent by SMSto improperly access services such as bank accounts, emails or social media profiles.
Why Swapping Sim Swapping is more dangerous
While with Phishing’s tactics what cybercounts are looking for is access to a certain service used by the user (their bank or the corporate network of their work, for example), the Sim Swapping is equivalent to lose control of the phone completely If you don’t act quickly, since Two -step verification systems usually use these confirmation SMS codes.
Thus, for example, you can access the WhatsApp From the victim from a new phone when receiving the verification SMS of the finishing platform in the duplicate SIM. Or access your email, Even if the check in two steps is activated, since it is usual to confirm from that phone number. And you can access any other service of the scammed person with those two tools: the phone number and email.
How the scammers get a duplicate of your sim
In a nutshell, Making you go through you in front of the operator. Requesting a duplicate from the SIM card is a management that is usually requested from telephone operators and has nothing strange: because it has been lost, it has been damaged or does not work correctly for another reason. Have Security protocols To confirm the identity of the person who makes the request, but these can get to draw if the scammer has sufficient information from the victim.
This can come from Data leaks With information such as Name, DNI, address, telephone number, etc., which provide enough information to appear to be another person in front of the operator and get the Duplicate of the SIM, at which time the victim will have lost control of their mobile.
The two words on your mobile screen that can alert a Sim Swapping
The first thing you can see if you are a victim of a Sim Swapping is that you stop receiving and send calls and SMS. If you are not connected to a Wi -Fi network, you will also lose Internet access. And if you look at your mobile screen You will find two words that mean that your SIM is not operating, indicative of a possible sim Swapping.
These are No service either No network and appear at the top of the screen. Depending on the mobile, you can also see the modified coverage icon to inform that the phone is not connected to the operator network.
What to do if you are a victim of Sim Swapping
If you think it may not be a problem of lack of circumstantial coverage or a malfunction, you must get in touch with your operator and verify that the card has not been doubled. If you are indeed before a case of Sim Swapping, the operator will deactivate the duplicate SIM and enable a new one for you.
Then you must contact your bankinform them of the situation and block your cards so that cybercriminals cannot make use of them. You must also check that there have been no unauthorized accesses to any other service that you use through the Internet and that could have been accessed by malicious actors while they could use your phone number.