Sim Swap Fraud Prevention Tips 2019 [26 Steps]

Sim Swap fraud prevention

Sim Swap or Port out service is a service offered by telecoms providers in India. Sim swap offers an easy way to get your stolen Sim card number again by blocking the old Sim and activating the new Sim with the same phone number.

Today i will discuss the various types and ways of Sim swap frauds and how you can be safe from this latest cyber security threat.

So welcome back to Gtechxp, let's start.

As you all know that, Sim swap is legal in India but nowadays it is used by some people to do sim swap fraud by just taking over the full control of any particular mobile number by just doing a fraud sim swap and further you know.

What is the sim swap?

Sim swap is a service offered by Indian telecom providers and this is very helpful if you lost your sim card somehow or if your sim card has been broken in both case you will get a new sim with the same number after providing valid id proof at particular service provider outlet.

What is Sim swap fraud?

So the sim swap fraud is unauthorized access to your running sim card and the rubber will get full access to your sim card after sim swap fraud. 

It's like your sim card in your phone but with some trick hacker can block your sim and open a new sim card with the same number and after that your previous sim card will be useless as that was blocked by service provider and the new sim card will receive all messages which means your bank otp is going to hacker and the hacker can do anything.

How the hacker do this sim swap fraud? All the details about this latest banking fraud are given below. So read this article and also share with the less tech-savvy person.

Why sim swap fraud is Increasing?

So the main motive behind the Sim swap fraud is basically 'Money' as nowadays every bank enabled two-factor authentication and when the bank sends an OTP to the registered mobile number then the robber/hacker get the OTP on that number easily.

Sim swapping is a little bit hard but the latest trick to do fraud transactions with 100% success rate. That why it is becoming popular and hackers attack anyone using sim swap fraud.

And now the older ways like ATM Block, Bank Manager, etc are getting old and most people know about this type of fraud. But sim swap is an advanced and best part of sim swap fraud is that hackers can attack a tech-savvy guy too that's way sim swap fraud is increasing day by day.

There are three most important tricks that a hacker uses to swap your sim card.

1. By Fake ID Proof

This is a very common and easy way to do sim swap fraud as nowadays there are lots of suspicious links(Click to win 3 lakh etc) being shared in whats app and other social media and people open these links and fills their details on it, like their name, phone number, and address, etc.

After that hacker easily get your personal information and using it now hacker can make a fake id proof and the after hacker calls customer care and asks for sim swap by giving a fake reason behind sim swap and when customer service executive asks for details, hacker easily give your details to customer service executive and sim swapping request has initiated by customer service executive.

So never share your personal details on any type of crap website or links.

2. Customer Care Executive

The second most common sim swap fraud is a customer care executive in which the hacker pretends to be a customer care executive of your telecoms provider and try to convince you with different types of fake reasons.

So whenever you get a call and if the person tells you that he/she is talking from customer care department etc and ask from you to share your sim card unique code or tell you to send a message with 1 on a particular number then NEVER EVER DO THIS.

3. MNP

So MNP (Mobile number portability ) is also a legal way to port your phone number from one operator to another operator.

To Port, your number you only need to send an SMS with the PORT (10 digits mobile number) to 1900 and after that you will receive a unique code and that code is only a hacker need to port your phone number.

Keep your SMS app locked and hidden so that no one can read your messages and also review all apps that reading your SMS just disallow SMS read permission for a particular app if you think that app is no need to read your SMS.

I'm sharing few tips that will help you in not only sim swap fraud but it will helpful for all type of banking frauds.

Keep away from Suspensions links

Today the Internet is used by almost every people in India and most of the people are active on various social media platforms or messaging apps like what's app etc. So whenever you see a suspicious link like - "Win 10K in 10 min" "Get 12K mobile at only 2k" etc never ever click on those links.

Change bank passwords

Now the Internet is increasing hence the net banking also increasing but most of the people just use their old password and they don't think about changing password unless they forget the password or their money got looted by hackers.

So always consider changing your password and if you think that after what time period you should change your password then it totally depends on your uses. If you do too many transactions then I would suggest you change your password every month.

Check bank balance regularly

Now, this is also a very common thing that most of the people do not follow. It takes only a few seconds to check your bank balance as now every bank offers banking apps through which you can check the bank balance in seconds.

Use virtual keyboards

If you are using net banking on a computer then always use the virtual keyboard or on-screen keyboard. You never know who can track your keyboard and you may become a victim of a phishing attack and your details and passwords may be compromised hence use of vertical keyboard will prevent any type of bank frauds and sim swap fraud.

Use Authentic apps

Most of the people use apps outside from play store and install crap apps in their smart phone. Now if you are also using some cheap unauthentic apps on your smartphone then uninstall it and I would suggest you do not install crap apps from Google play store too as google play store is safe but it is not totally secure hence you have to be smart enough to be safe from sim swap fraud.

Private info

Your private information is very important to you. Nowadays people share their full name, address and even phone number on various social media platforms but your this mistake helps hackers to create your fake id proof.

So Try to share only limited information on social media and be a responsible human being to be safe from sim swap fraud.

Social media

Be very clever in social media as nowadays there is also some type of social media phishing is going on various social media platforms. Be away from strangers and never ever disclose your full name, address and phone number to anyone.

Your Debit Card

So your debit card is a very important thing as all your hard work money is on that card. Use your debit card securely and whenever you enter the PIN first cover it with one hand and then enter the PIN.

Your checkbook

Try to keep your checkbook safe and secure as your all-important pieces of information is printed on your checkbook and if anyone somehow got your signature type then the person can do anything with your checkbook.

Your Sim card unique number

As you may know that there is a unique sim card number also known as ICCID of 19 digits. So never share this number with anyone.

Hide last four/eight digit of your debit card number

So this is my secret tips as if you hide last four or eight digits of your physical debit/credit card then you will cut down the risk of any type of fraud by 50%.

You can hide digits from your physical debit card and keep that digits in your mind or write that on any secure notepad or in your diary etc. It will help a lot and make you safe from any type of bank fraud or sim swap fraud as well.

Hide CVV number on your debit card

This is the most useful tips that I'm sharing with you all. As you all know CVV number has 3 digits unique numbers and in every transaction, you have to enter this 3 digits CVV number to complete the transaction.

You can hide CVV number on your physical debit card using upper tips that I have already shared. CVV number is a very critical number and never share this with anyone.

These are a few common things that can help you to enjoy safe banking. If you follow these rules you never ever lose your hard work money and never get trapped into sim swap fraud.

Also Read - Best Web Hosting

Never share OTP

As you all know that OPT is very confidential Password that you should never share with anyone. Banks never ever asks for OTP and if you share you OTP then only you will be responsible for your money lose not the bank or anyone else this will prevent sim swap fraud.

Never switch off your phone

If you are getting too many miss calls from a different country and also lots of messages then never ever switch off your phone. If you switch off your phone then the hacker Will be successful in his work.

So now if you are not initiated any Sim swap request and you are getting spam calls and messages then do read every message and if any message you get from your telecom provider for sim swap then immediately call customer care to tell them to stop the sim swap request so that can be age from sim swap fraud.

Add an email with your bank account

It is very important to add your email with your all banks accounts as this will helps you in many critical situations. Sometime due to network problem banks, notifications can't reach in your phone but if you add an email to your bank account then you will get every information and updates on your bank account in your inbox and this will prevent sim swap fraud.

How to know sim swap fraud?

If you are getting too much span calls and messages and after a few hours you see no network on your sim then there is 100% chance that you trapped in sim swap fraud.

What to do after sim swap fraud?

Call your bank and tell them to block every transaction. Call your customer care of your telecom provider and tell them that your sim was swapped by hackers they will give you further instruction.

Go to the Operator's outlet

Mostly sim swap fraud was done in the night but if in your case, if it is day then go to the telecom providers outlets and tell them whole incident and start a sim swap again and ask them to give the details of hackers, like location and IP address etc from where sim swap request was initiated and this step is very crucial in case of sim swap fraud.

Find the hacker

This is hard but not impossible! Try to find the hacker by complaining about your issue to a higher level to your telecom provider and this will be a hard step from you to stop the sim swap fraud.

File an FIR ( If you want )

You can also file an FIR in your nearby police station and also write emails cyber crime cell.

You may not see the results very quickly but your complaint will save others from being trapped in sim swap fraud.

Final Word

So the thing is that hacker does not hack your bank account but you give access to hackers to hack your bank account by doing some mistakes that I have shared in today article.

After reading this article I think you will know everything about sim swap and sim swap fraud and if you follow the tips shared on this article I'm 100% sure no one has the power to do any fraud with you.

Be happy to be the game changer!!