Act swiftly and these steps could help mitigate the damage from a sim-swap scam and prevent it happening again
Your mobile phone line is the artery through which data, calls and texts flow. It is also used to prove you are who you say you are for a plethora of accounts, from banks to messaging services.
But if it gets hacked or stolen, in what is known as a “sim swap” or “simjacking”, the consequences can be far worse than just being cut off from mobile data or calls. Unfortunately it is the kind of hack you don’t see coming. It happens in the background, with hackers using your personal data such as date of birth and address to con your network provider into swapping your phone number to a new sim in their possession.
If that happens it is important to act as swiftly as possible. Here’s what to do.
Keep an eye on notifications from your mobile network, which are usually delivered by SMS. These include information about activity elsewhere and alerts of change requests, such as your phone number being activated on another device.
