SIM Swap Fraud

SIM swap fraud is the theft of your phone number. A criminal calls your mobile company, says they are you, and asks for the number to be moved to a new SIM card in their hand. Sometimes they have your address and date of birth from an old leak, which is enough to sound convincing. From that minute, your calls and your text messages arrive on their phone.

The number is only the door. Banks, email providers and social media send security codes by text, so whoever holds the number holds the codes. With your number and one old password, a thief resets your email, then uses the email to reset everything else. A shop owner can lose the bank account and the business page in the same afternoon, without a single virus on any computer.

The warning sign is quiet and easy to miss. Your phone loses signal in a place where it always works, no calls, no messages, and the screen may say no service. Most people assume the network is having a bad day and wait until evening. That wait is exactly what the thief needs. Borrow another phone straight away, call your mobile company, and then call your bank. Linkysoft has seen the same story more than once, and it always starts with an hour of silence nobody questioned.

Two changes stop it. Move your security codes off text messages and onto an authenticator app, which shows six digits on your own phone and sends nothing through the network, the practical side of two-factor authentication. Then call your mobile company and put a PIN or a password on the account, so the number cannot be moved until someone says it. Ask what proof they need for a SIM change. The answer tells you how easy you are to attack, and asking costs nothing.

Small companies are usually hit through one number, the owner's personal mobile that also receives the bank codes. When Linkysoft runs a cybersecurity review, that number comes off the important accounts first and staff logins move to an app. The work takes an hour. The difference is between a bad morning and a business that cannot pay its suppliers.