Prevent SIM Swapping and Losing Access to Your Phone Number and Your Accounts

In this article, we’ll talk about how to prevent SIM swapping as it is a growing crime you need to be aware of. If a thief takes over your phone number and has a way to gain access to your accounts, your finances could be severely damaged—not to mention your personal life and peace of mind.

In a nutshell, here’s what you need to know about SIM swapping.

1. It’s a growing crime and could happen to anyone. The bigger your profile (financial, social media, career), the bigger of a target you may be.
   
2. 99% of people know nothing about it until it happens to them or someone they know.
   
3. You cannot prevent SIM swapping, but you can take steps to limit the chance of it happening to you
   
4. More importantly, you can take steps to protect your accounts even if a criminal were to take over your phone number.

In a successful SIM-swapping instance, the criminal doesn’t steal your smartphone. Instead, they take over your phone number behind your back, without you being aware of it—until you try to use your phone and it doesn’t work.

• The bad news is they might go on to drain some of your financial accounts or disrupt your social media presence.
• The good news is you can take steps to prevent it from ever reaching that point.

SIM Swapping basics: How does someone take over your phone number?

Without your knowledge, a criminal contacted your phone service provider, pretending to be you, with a tale of having a new phone and needing to swap their SIM card (your SIM card) for a new phone.

SIM stands for Subscriber Identity Module. A small SIM card contains a special chip that stores information on a mobile subscriber’s identity and the phone number tied to that account. A SIM card inside a smartphone is like a DVD inside a DVD player. The SIM card identifies and authenticates subscribers on mobile devices.

Crazy, huh? Well, that is not supposed to happen. And even though there are steps you can take (and need to take) to prevent that, it’s still not 100% foolproof.

That’s because criminals can get around the protections that should keep us safe.

• Sometimes, a thief has bribed a phone provider employee to break the rules.
• It’s even possible for an employee to go rogue and commit a SIM-swapping crime on their own or with the help of a partner in crime.

It can happen. It does happen. But there are two ways you can protect yourself.

1. Take steps that can stop a thief from moving your phone number to their phone, which would make your smartphone unusable.
2. Take steps to protect your accounts by beefing up your account defenses.

The second step is essential, not simply because of SIM swapping, but because you can keep other hackers and scammers out of your accounts.

Prevent SIM Swapping.

Here are the steps for thwarting a would-be SIM-swapping thief and protecting your accounts.

• Contact your smartphone provider. Do it sooner than later. Ask if they will let you set up a sim card password that only you know. Also, ask them about a “number lock. This means your phone number can’t simply transferred to another phone.
  
• Use the latest security technology. Use face ID recognition for as many accounts as you can. Explore the apps on your phone and set up facial recognition to log in to prevent logins from anyone but you.
  
• Use two-factor authentication the best way. The best place to start is using 2FA to protect all your financial and social media accounts. However, explore using an “authenticator app” for two-factor authentication instead of text messages. If a thief takes over your phone and has your login credentials, the one-time passcode to finish logging in would go straight to them because they control your phone number.
  
• Use a password manager app for all your accounts. Hackers are skilled at stealing email addresses and passwords (and selling them), and they know some people use the same passwords for different accounts. If you use a password manager app/program, however, even someone who has your and knows your passwords cannot log in. Why? Because they would be blocked by your password manager app, which requires having the master password to use it. Only you would know that password.
  
• Don’t leave clues all over social media. Scammers mine social media accounts to learn about people, their lives, and their interests. Some people reveal too much personal information about themselves, which allows scammers to pretend to be friends or use that information to steal identities…or phone numbers.

Our phones have become too valuable. We need to disconnect.

When cell phones emerged in the 1990s, no one could have envisioned how important they would become in our everyday lives. When Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone in 2007, who knew it would change our lives forever?

Today, our phone numbers are dangerously connected to every aspect of our lives, from finances and socializing to healthcare and shopping.

Many security experts advise that to protect our finances and privacy, we must first protect our phone numbers, phones, and other access points. The best time to start is right now.

— Chris Parker

Prevent SIM swapping. Follow the EasyPrey Podcast.

For more SIM-swapping insights and advice for staying safer in the digital world, subscribe to the Easy Prey podcast, hosted by Chris Parker, CEO of WhatIsMyIPAddress.com.