ODESSA, Texas — In 2021, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center received around 1,600 complaints related to SIM swapping with adjusted losses of more than 68 million dollars.
SIM swapping is a method used by criminals that allows them to take control of your smartphone and break into your online accounts.
They could just take your actual SIM card out of your phone, but that isn’t the only method they have to perform SIM swapping.
There are three ways in which criminals can carry out SIM swapping.
One way is getting ahold of an insider from a phone carrier.
“They can pay off this individual and request to port that phone number for the victim over to a SIM card that is under the possession of the criminal,” said Tomas Armendariz, an FBI computer scientist.
The second method is through a phishing or smishing campaign.
“Now this is through smishing, which is an SMS text message that basically is a phishing attack. And they can craft a text message to make it appear that it’s coming from a legit source. Sometimes they can even craft it to make it appear it’s coming from your phone carrier," Armendariz continued.
The third method is through social engineering techniques.
“An attacker can basically look you up through social media platforms or other online accounts and harvest your phone number, street address, and other personal data that’s tied to you,” Armendariz continued.
The FBI recommends that individuals take the following precautions:
- Don’t advertise information about financial assets, which includes investments or cryptocurrency investments.
- Don’t provide your mobile phone number account information over the telephone; legitimate phone carriers will not ask for these over the phone.
- Be suspicious of unsolicited texts, emails, and calls urging you to act immediately with personal information.
- Avoid posting personal information online such as your phone number, street address or other information that can identify you.
- Don't use the same passwords online for all your accounts.
In the event that you do get hacked, the FBI advises you not to panic and notify your carrier and law enforcement immediately.
Take all this information to heart and you’ll be better prepared for a SIM swapping attack.