SIM swap scams have been a growing problem, with fraudsters targeting people from various walks of life, including tech leaders, and causing untold damage to many victims. Here’s why you should be on the lookout for attacks where someone can upend your life by first hijacking your mobile phone number.
Also known as SIM hijacking and SIM splitting, SIM swapping can be described as a form of account takeover fraud. To make the attack work, the cybercriminal will first gather information on their mark, often through trawling the web and searching for every tidbit of data the potential victim may have (over)shared. The victim’s personal information can also be gleaned from known data breaches or leaks, or via social engineering techniques, such as phishing and vishing, where the fraudster wheedles the information directly out of the target.