Telecom SIM Swap Fraud

What is this Fraud?

A type of identity theft where fraudster manages to  obtain personal banking details and victim’s mobile number using various social engineering tools.

How it works?

Fraudster approaches a telecom service provider posing as their customer to obtain duplicate SIM cards of their intended victims’ existing mobile numbers, allegedly by using forged identities and/or fake POA.

Safeguards against this fraud.

•      If your mobile phone doesn’t have a network, do not assume it to be a network outage and immediately check with your service provider.
•      If your service provider confirms no network outage and/or issuance of replacement SIM card, register a complaint with the service provider and check your bank account immediately.
•      Regularly check your bank statements and transaction history for any irregularities.
•      Never reveal answers to your “security questions” to anyone.
•      Do not keep personal details such as your phone number, date of birth etc. visible to all on social media platforms.
•      Do not respond to unsolicited calls or text messages asking for your sensitive information.