Saturday 28 August 2021

Another SIM Swap Disaster

I felt like I needed to reach out and say that if you don't remember if your phone is linked to your email, then you should check now! Also, 2FA SMS is not a good way to secure your accounts.

Yesterday I noticed my phone would not make calls or receive texts. I got on chat with my carrier Straight Talk and they could not sort it out so after two hours, I ended the chat and started a new one. The new tech told me that my number had been assigned to a new SIM around midnight the night before. The hacker didn't even use my name, but were able to answer some security questions so they accepted it. I will have to wait to see the transcripts before I know if they had the pin.

While on the chat I had noticed my emails were also not coming in on my phone, password was reset, so I proceeded to verify my identity and regain access to my email. In the old mail folder I found a nightmare that I have heard about before, password reset emails for crypto apps. So I sent messages to every financial app and had them locked immediately but I was far to late.

I found that the SIM was changed around midnight and a half hour later everything was withdrawn from one account and bank transfers were made, and withdrew from another.

So, if you haven't already started using an authenticator app, do it now. Tell your phone provider you must be in person with ID to make changes; this was not an option for me so I will change. Make sure your phone number is not connected to your email. Hell, use a separate email for each app. It seems like it is too easy for hackers to SIM swap; especially with the recent data breaches.

Transaction hash can be provided for verification if needed.

Hope this helps someone!



Submitted August 28, 2021 at 12:11PM by findwildair https://bit.ly/38hAYGi

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