A SIM swap scam (also known as port-out scam, SIM splitting, [1] simjacking, and SIM swapping) [2] is a type of account takeover fraud that generally targets a weakness in two-factor authentication and two-step verification in which the second factor or step is a text message (SMS) or call placed to a mobile telephone.
The fraud exploits a mobile phone service provider's ability to seamlessly port a phone number to a device containing a different subscriber identity module (SIM). This mobile number portability feature is normally used when a phone is lost or stolen, or a customer is switching service to a new phone.
The scam begins with a fraudster gathering personal details about the victim, either by use of phishing emails, by buying them from organised criminals, [3] directly socially engineering the victim, [4] or by retrieval from online data breaches. [5]
Armed with these details, the fraudster contacts the victim's mobile telephone provider. The fraudster uses social engineering techniques to convince the telephone company to port the victim's phone number to the fraudster's SIM. This is done, for example, by impersonating the victim using personal details to appear authentic and claiming that they have lost their phone. In some countries, notably India and Nigeria, the fraudster will have to convince the victim to approve the SIM swap by pressing 1. [6] [7] [4]
Upon retrieving the victim's information, attackers commonly impersonate them while contacting technical support services for their telecommunication provider and attempt to convince the employees to switch the victim's phone number to their SIM card. [8] [9] In some cases, however, telecom company employees have been bribed by attackers to directly change SIM numbers for them. [10] [5] Attackers have sought out employees for companies including T-Mobile and Verizon through social media or employee directories in attempts to hire them, promising a fixed amount of money in cryptocurrency for each phone number they transfer for the attacker. [11] [12]
Once this happens, the victim's phone will lose connection to the network, and the fraudster will receive all the SMS and voice calls intended for the victim. This allows the fraudster to intercept one-time passwords sent via text or telephone calls to the victim's number and thus subvert two-factor authentication methods relying on them. Since so many services allow password resets with only access to a recovery phone number, the scam allows criminals to gain access to almost any account tied to the hijacked number. This may allow them to directly transfer funds from a bank account, extort the rightful owner, or sell accounts on the black market for identity theft.
A number of high-profile hacks have occurred utilizing SIM swapping, including some on the social media sites Instagram and Twitter. In 2019, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's Twitter account was hacked via this method. [13] [14]
In May 2020, a lawsuit was filed against an 18 year old Irvington High School senior in Irvington, New York, Ellis Pinsky, who was accused with 20 co-conspirators of swindling digital currency investor Michael Terpin –the founder and chief executive officer of Transform Group –of $23.8 million in 2018, when the accused was 15 years old, through the use of data stolen from smartphones by SIM swaps. The lawsuit was filed in federal court in White Plains, New York and asked for triple damages. [15] [16] [ needs update ]
In early 2022, the US FBI reported a sharp increase in money losses to consumers in 2021, and continuing into 2022, from this type of fraud. [17] [18] The losses in 2021 alone were five times larger than the three prior years summed: “The FBI says that victims lost $68 million to this SIM-card based scam in 2021, compared to just $12 million in the three-year period between 2018 and 2020.” [17] The FBI received 1,600 complaints about SIM-swapping in 2021, a sharp increase from the three previous years. The swaps happen quickly once the scammers have sufficient information to persuade a mobile phone carrier to assign a stolen phone number to their phone; the thefts of money happen when the thieves then receive the two-factor codes sent to the proper owner of the phone number. [18]
In South Korea, alleged incidents of SIM swapping attacks have been documented since the beginning of 2022. The common pattern includes victims facing abrupt disruptions in their mobile services, coupled with a notification suggesting a change. As a result, affected individuals discover that their bank and cryptocurrency accounts have been compromised. [19]
An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and is one of the most common types of confidence tricks. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim to pay or simply disappears.
Phishing is a form of social engineering and scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware such as ransomware. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticated and often transparently mirror the site being targeted, allowing the attacker to observe everything while the victim is navigating the site, and transverse any additional security boundaries with the victim. As of 2020, it is the most common type of cybercrime, with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center reporting more incidents of phishing than any other type of computer crime.
Phone fraud, or more generally communications fraud, is the use of telecommunications products or services with the intention of illegally acquiring money from, or failing to pay, a telecommunication company or its customers.
A one-time password (OTP), also known as a one-time PIN, one-time authorization code (OTAC) or dynamic password, is a password that is valid for only one login session or transaction, on a computer system or other digital device. OTPs avoid several shortcomings that are associated with traditional (static) password-based authentication; a number of implementations also incorporate two-factor authentication by ensuring that the one-time password requires access to something a person has as well as something a person knows.
A transaction authentication number (TAN) is used by some online banking services as a form of single use one-time passwords (OTPs) to authorize financial transactions. TANs are a second layer of security above and beyond the traditional single-password authentication.
Email spoofing is the creation of email messages with a forged sender address. The term applies to email purporting to be from an address which is not actually the sender's; mail sent in reply to that address may bounce or be delivered to an unrelated party whose identity has been faked. Disposable email address or "masked" email is a different topic, providing a masked email address that is not the user's normal address, which is not disclosed, but forwards mail sent to it to the user's real address.
Caller ID spoofing is a spoofing attack which causes the telephone network's Caller ID to indicate to the receiver of a call that the originator of the call is a station other than the true originating station. This can lead to a display showing a phone number different from that of the telephone from which the call was placed.
Voice phishing, or vishing, is the use of telephony to conduct phishing attacks.
Phone cloning is the copying of identity from one cellular device to another.
Telemarketing fraud is fraudulent selling conducted over the telephone. The term is also used for telephone fraud not involving selling.
Credit card fraud is an inclusive term for fraud committed using a payment card, such as a credit card or debit card. The purpose may be to obtain goods or services or to make payment to another account, which is controlled by a criminal. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is the data security standard created to help financial institutions process card payments securely and reduce card fraud.
Multi-factor authentication is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting two or more pieces of evidence to an authentication mechanism. MFA protects personal data—which may include personal identification or financial assets—from being accessed by an unauthorized third party that may have been able to discover, for example, a single password.
"Mobile tower fraud" may be defined as a type of mass marketing fraud with advance fee fraud characteristics, where the central scheme is the installation of a mobile tower in the victim's property. The victims are lured by the promise of huge rental income. Mobile tower fraudsters are targeting individuals of all ages and demographics. With the telecommunication infrastructure booming in India to meet the socioeconomic requirements of the country, mass marketing fraudsters have seen a criminal opportunity in it.
AnyDesk is a remote desktop application distributed by AnyDesk Software GmbH. The proprietary software program provides platform-independent remote access to personal computers and other devices running the host application. It offers remote control, file transfer, and VPN functionality. AnyDesk is often used in technical support scams and other remote access scams.
Cryptocurrency and crime describe notable examples of cybercrime related to theft of cryptocurrencies and some methods or security vulnerabilities commonly exploited. Cryptojacking is a form of cybercrime specific to cryptocurrencies that have been used on websites to hijack a victim's resources and use them for hashing and mining cryptocurrency.
On July 15, 2020, between 20:00 and 22:00 UTC, 130 high-profile Twitter accounts were reportedly compromised by outside parties to promote a bitcoin scam. Twitter and other media sources confirmed that the perpetrators had gained access to Twitter's administrative tools so that they could alter the accounts themselves and post the tweets directly. They appeared to have used social engineering to gain access to the tools via Twitter employees. Three individuals were arrested by authorities on July 31, 2020, and charged with wire fraud, money laundering, identity theft, and unauthorized computer access related to the scam.
Graham Ivan Clark is an American computer hacker, cybercriminal and a convicted felon regarded as the mastermind behind the 2020 Twitter account hijacking.
The meaning of the word crypto as an abbreviation is controversial. Cryptographers - people who specialize in cryptography - have used the term "crypto" as an abbreviation for their field of study. However, "crypto" has also become a common abbreviation for cryptocurrency.
A fraud factory or fraud park is a collection of large fraud organizations usually involved in human trafficking operations, commonly found in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Myanmar, or Laos, and usually operated by a criminal gang. Fraud factory operators lure foreign nationals to scam hubs, where they are forced into modern slavery, to scam internet users around the world into fraudulently buying cryptocurrencies or withdrawing cash, via social media and online dating apps. Trafficking victims' passports are confiscated, and they are threatened with organ harvesting and forced prostitution if they do not scam sufficiently successfully.
Scam call centers operate in Ukraine, including major cities such as Kyiv and Dnipro. Under Article 190 of The Criminal Code of Ukraine, the activities of these call centers are considered illegal. According to Sberbank, the "capital" of phone fraud is Dnipro, and up to 95% of calls originate from Ukraine to Russians.
Among the alleged criminals were also two former AT&T contract employees and one former Verizon employee, who helped the alleged criminals by providing private customer information in exchange for bribes, according to court documents.