SIM card swap fraud is a creative new scam cyber criminals are using to exploit mobile activity. It’s currently on the rise, aimed at profitable victims that have been specifically targeted. Recently, eight members of parliament lost money to hackers on duplicated sim cards. The members of parliament have put this type of fraud on Uganda Communications Commission’s inability to put ample measure to deal with sim card hacking and mobile money fraud.
What is SIM card swap fraud?
It is a type of fraud that involves a cyber criminal replacing an existing number of a telecom company’s client on a new SIM card. It’s a way cunning attackers are attempting to gain access to their target’s cell phone communications.
How does it happen?
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Fraudsters begin by collecting as much information about the victim as possible. They check the victims public social media profiles for any information that might be useful for their dirty mission. They employ social engineering that may tempt the victim to hand over their legitimate names, date of birth, address, id numbers and phone numbers.
To continue with the “Italian job”, the criminals create a false identity of the victim after gathering enough information. The attackers then social engineer their way through a cellular company’s representative with the false identification to get a SIM card issued for a number the attacker doesn’t own.
Most cellphone service providers won’t just give away SIM card replacements like that. They have trusted some representatives on the ground who ask some security questions. But SIM fraudsters come prepared, using the personal data they’ve collected. This appears to be the easy part especially in Uganda as all you need is a susceptible representative at any of the telecom company’s store. The country is awash with telecom company outposts that do SIM card swaps. Some of these representatives can be easily lied to by the genius fraudsters as they also want to make money off the SIM card swap.
There is also a possibility that the fraudsters may not even have to go through all this trouble, as it has been suspected by UCC due to the ease of this scam, that city con men have a connection to specific telecom staff. In other words an inside job.
SIM card swaps are mostly done when your phone is switched off. The fraudsters may trick you into switching your phone off by bothering you with multiple calls flashing “unknown number” on the screen. This may piss you off and you end up switching your phone off, succumbing to the fraudsters desire. When your mobile is off, you will not be able to realize that service has been cut off from your SIM card, giving them enough time window to play their dirty tricks.
Now the fraudsters gain unfettered access to a victim’s phone number. They can do whatever they want and place calls and send messages as the victim.
In the MPs case, the fraudsters sent messages to unsuspecting friends of the victims requesting to borrow money. The Western Youth MP Mwine Mpaka lost over UGX 140 million to these fraudsters.
Red flags to signal a SIM card fraud
It’s almost impossible to detect the fraud before it occurs. Panic buttons are only hit when victims discover they can’t place a call or send text messages. When fraudsters activate your number on a new SIM card, your own card is deactivated, messages and calls won’t go through.
How to combat SIM card fraud
How to combat SIM card fraudIt is not yet a common type of fraud in Uganda. But the recent few stray incidents in past weeks sent a shock wave in the general public. Many banks today have incorporated mobile handsets for banking transactions. You should obviously expect the number of such fraud attacks to increase as fraudsters scramble to benefit from accessing bank accounts too with a SIM card swap. The modes to combat SIM card fraud range from organisational to technical.
1. Telecom companies should introduce additional checks for SIM card reissuing. The available modes of getting number replacements have loop holes that fraudsters are putting to their advantage. The documentation presented for a SIM card replacement should be proved beyond reasonable doubt that it is authentic. Also, replacements should be given to the owner of the SIM card not representatives who come flashing documents. And in case a person sends a representative, the telecom company should make an effort and call the client on the optional number they filled on the form when buying their SIM card to make sure they get their consent for the SIM card replacement or swap.
2. Make an effort to become familiar with existing fraudulent activities by reading appropriate blogs and newspaper articles so that you are well versed with the many tricks fraudsters use to victimize people. So when you see that fraudster’s SMS arrive in your inbox, you know it’s nonsense.
3. Don’t put important information about yourself on public profiles. This information can be used to make false identification that could ease the SIM swap process for the fraudsters.
4. Don’t switch off your phone when you receive multiple unknown calls however tempting it might be. This is a fraudsters ploy to have you out of the picture so you don’t realize anything strange going on with your handset.
5. Consider joining a telecom company that gives better security to clients when it comes to fraudulent activities. Also, consider banks that offer robust security if you are to use cellphone banking.
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