SIM card !A couple of retirees from Lot-et-Garonne went through all the emotions last week when they discovered that their bank account was empty.

Fraudsters are more and more inventive.Their objective ?Get your hands on your money, as with the hacking of SIM cards, which has made many victims in the world.A couple of retirees from Lot-et-Garonne recently experienced this mishap.

When he realized the SIM card fraud, the husband quickly went to see his bank.The latter told him that all her accounts had been emptied.She then explained to the couple that all the money had been transferred to an Irish banking platform.

The couple went to the gendarmerie to file a complaint.The gendarmes told them that the scam could come from their telephone operator and in particular from the customer area which had been hacked.

It is a SIM à la carte scam, also called SIM Swap, which consists in virtually flying the SIM card of a person.

How do pirates do it?

The objective of criminals is to get hold of your telephone line and take possession of your personal data, in particular via the customer area of your operator.Their goal is to make purchases on the Internet and consult your accounts on social networks, as explained by the specialized media the Journal du Geek.

The method is relatively simple, on paper:

The pirate pretends to you with your mobile operator, pretending, for example, that you have lost your SIM card or your mobile phone has been stolen.

This means that he most likely collected your social security number and your address in order to convince his interlocutor (advice: do not throw the invoices or documents on which your contact details appear, use a destructive of documents rather than tear orCrush your documents, and if you cannot do otherwise, throw your pieces of paper in two separate bins).

In general, the operator reacts quickly and activates a new SIM card.From there, the pirate can access many sensitive elements: bank accounts, mailboxes, social networks, online sales platforms like Amazon, etc..This is possible thanks to what is called two factors authentication: to receive an SMS to, for example, access its bank accounts.And as criminals have taken control of your number, they are the ones who receive these messages.

Stay on your guard

The SIM à la carte scam has killed thousands of victims worldwide.Personalities in the world of spectacle (cinema, television, radio, etc..) and politics are particularly targeted by the SIM à la carte scam.

In 2019, the founder and CEO of the social network Twitter, Jack Dorsey, was the victim of an à la carte scam.His own account was hacked by hackers.Although the consequences of hacking in this case have not been dramatic, the repercussions of a SIM card scam can be much more serious and potentially dangerous.

For the retired couple, a visit to their operator to change their SIM card and their personal codes was enough to thwart the scam.Indeed, banks can intervene on suspicious transfers if they are detected very quickly.If this mishap ends well for them, they must remain vigilant.

Many people store all their personal information on their mobile phone.This behavior can have serious repercussions.It is often very difficult to convince banks, operators and various social media that you are the person you claim to be and that a fraudster has usurped your identity.

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