How to prevent SIM Swapping, the scam that clones chips and gains access to bank accounts

US authorities have detected an increase in SIM swapping cases. It is a fraud based on social engineering that allows criminal acts to be committed.

That is why it is important to know it, to know how it works and take a series of recommendations so as not to be a victim of a crime.

What is SIM swapping

SIM exchange or SIM swapping includes duplicate SIM card smartphone. The SIM card or Subscriber Identity Module in a mobile phone stores the customer access code and the phone number of the telephone company.

This organization used techniques such as phishing and the smishing (via SMS) to impersonate a trusted person or company to obtain information from the victim, such as password, credit card data or copies of identity documents.

Then, with this information, they communicated with the telephone company pretending to be legitimate users and in this way obtain a new SIM card with the same telephone number.

How are SIM cards duplicated?

The danger of SIM swapping is that you do not need physical access to the mobile device to clone the SIM card. To do this, the cyber criminals they contact the customer service of telephone operators and pose as legitimate users.

If successful, you will get a new SIM card and you will be able to access sensitive information stored on it (contacts, passwords, bank details, etc.). In this way, they will hijack the victim’s phone line and use all their information,