SIM Swapping EXPLAINED (+ how YOU can easily avoid it)

This is totally the fault of the phone companies and they should be held liable for the loses due to their lack of security in these instances.

Here’s a stupid question…why don’t Carriers call the actual number before allowing a sim swap?

What they need to do is force you to visit one of the stores with some sort of government issued photo ID (this would mean no credit cards can be used as ID). The whole idea is to do it in person rather than taking your word that the account is yours. Too many things are done over the phone or internet rather than in person. It is only for convenience. It is time to give up some of that convenience in exchange for security. Too many people want convenience but they don't realize what they get in exchange.

Your phone service carrier should be held liable for poor employee training if sim swap happens to you.

More proof that regardless of how vigilant you are with cyber security, the large corporations we commerce with are the weakest link.

In Italy, where I live and work, you have to present the phone company operator a police statement (theft, lost SIM, etc.) and an identity document (Passport, Identity Card, etc.) in order to get a new SIM. It has always been so. The European Union has recently released a series of rules to phone companies in order to fight SIM swapping and others types of scam. Transfering the phone number to a new operator is equally protected. For example, a phone call or a SMS is sent to the existing SIM in order to notify the user before moving the number to the new SIM.

how about requiring customers come to a phone store and show their physical ID? if they can’t there is always video conference.

The phone companies should be held accountable

That suggestion about not giving truthful answers to security questions is a good one. I've been doing that for a while.

The phone companies should require people to come into the store with 3 pieces of ID to transfer a phone number to a new SIM card.

I'm curious, how concerned are you about your mobile phone provider? If it's a serious concern, check out the added privacy and protection of Efani: efani.com/allthingssecured

Interesting. In most developed countries you need to provide physical ID at a physical location or authenticate with your online banking credentials to request a new SIM, which can only be sent to your registered address or picked up from a store with physical ID like a passport or ID card.

I called AT&T and said DO NOT allow SIM swapping on my account about 2y ago. They said they have no way of doing this! I said okay put your manger on the phone, told them this phone call is recorded and that I want you to personally note my account that SIM SWAPS are not allowed unless done in person. I doubt they gave me a real name OR that my account was noted so I tested it and NO NOTE was added. The fact that a multi billion dollar company can't add a policy saying anything SIM related must be done in person, including changing options from this point on, is beyond me. Reminds me of trying to buy a series X from Microsoft a few years back, THE tech giant of the world, does not have a simple captcha in place to prevent bots from exploiting on their website. We must be real naive not to be able to read between the lines...

One more easy and important tip which you should have mentioned is to never use your primary SIM number as the 2FA number. Buy a 2nd SIM and use that for important accounts and only use for those accounts and never contact anyone with that SIM nor share that number with anyone.

Re: carrier account pin code or p/w....a good practice is to change it after calling carrier and giving it to them to verify your account. You never known if they've written down somewhere

As usually with corporations, spend millions advertising how wonderful they are but pennies on training.

So there is no way to easily avoid it, other than your recommendation to buy this expensive third party cellphone plan. As far as Efani, one of my main concerns is if they all of a sudden go out of business. Since they're the one your phone number is with, and not the underlying carrier, you might be screwed and lose your number. They'll be no way to port it out. :/

Thank you so much for these suggestions. Thanks to you, I was able to set up a SIM PIN, and I also enabled other security features my carrier offers to harden my account against misuse. Great tips! 👍

Cheers Josh , great information.

Thank you for this video!