Terry Savage: SIM swap is a new way to swipe your savings

Even if you’ve frozen your credit report, they can grab your money by taking over your phone number. It’s called “SIM swapping.” It’s all done electronically, and it defeats the authentication controls that most banks have in place.

Once a scam artist electronically transfers your phone SIM card, that two-factor authentication PIN goes to his phone — not yours. And when the thief confirms the transaction, all your money is wired out of your account to his account! Then they call the phone company pretending to be you, saying your phone is lost, and asking to transfer your SIM to the new phone they are holding. Or, according to the FBI, they may bribe or blackmail low-level employees in telephone stores to transfer the numbers to new SIMs.—Download an authentication app for your cell phone. Microsoft and Google offer them, as do many other companies. Since the app resides on your phone, the fraudsters cannot access it.

Sadly, you can easily and inexpensively get all this sophisticated protection, but it won’t work if your financial institution insists on sending SMS text messages and doesn’t allow you to use an authenticator app. FBI Special Agent Ali Sadiq of the Cyber Criminal Investigative Squad says: “Banks need to catch up with best authentication practices — unfortunately, they are all still using SIM texts.

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