SIM swap fraud on the rise - warning from Vodacom

[jes]

SIM swap fraud on the rise - warning from Vodacom

Vodacom is warning customers against scammers posing as company representatives

[werny]

These people just become more clever by the day.

[wily me]

Vodacom has noted that SIM swap fraud attempts are on the rise in South Africa.

The group says that fraudsters who engage in SIM swap fraud are posing as cellphone company representatives in an attempt to fool customers who end up being victims of internet banking fraud.

SIM swap fraud is a technique used by criminals to defraud unsuspecting internet banking users. Once they have acquired the victim’s banking details and other personal information through phishing scams, the fraudsters then call the network operator posing as the customer and request a SIM swap. This, according to Vodacom, will cancel the customer’s SIM connection and the fraudsters will have access to the customer’s mobile line. This then enables the criminal to receive the customer’s one time internet banking password allowing them to perform fraudulent internet banking transactions.

In order to protect customers from SIM swap fraud, Vodacom says it notifies customers via SMS whenever a SIM swap attempt is made.

The mobile operator says that fraudsters have resorted to calling customers to try to either convince them to switch off their phones for an extended period of time or try and convince them to ignore the SMS from the network operator.

“We’ll never call our customers and ask them to switch off their cellphones unless they have requested assistance with a handset related issue that requires their cellphones to be switched off. “So if they’ve not logged a fault with us, they should be suspicious of any requests to switch off their cellphone,” said Johan Van Graan, chief risk officer at Vodacom.

“If a customer receives an SMS notification indicating that they have requested a SIM swap, they should ignore any further communication and immediately contact Vodacom and we’ll take the necessary steps to protect them,” he added.

Important. Now what if your cell's battery is flat or the phone is off? How do they get all your details?

[The Trutherizer]

You said Rica would do what?.. Prevent crime?.. Riiight...

[Nduimiso]

This is why Capitec's OTP dongle is so awesome, SIM swap won't help the fraudsters

[froot]

SIM swap fraud on the rise - warning from Vodacom

Vodacom is warning customers against scammers posing as company representatives

Occie!!!

[Ockie]

Occie!!!

Dont joke.

You wont believe...I was totally shouted at last week cause I asked a client for his ID number on the phone before I gave him any confidential information. He accused me of trying to scam him. Tried to mediate between him and one of my other clients who printed his number on one of their flyers. He vloek'ed me that Atlantic could not wash me clean!

I can appreciate him being suspicious....but he completely treated me like a dog. I am still rather upset by the entire episode. I tend to take things like that rather personally. Still working on that. :-)

[tcat]

Hey Occie - sitting in the crow's nest - you should know better on all these things

[Ockie]

Hey Occie - sitting in the crow's nest - you should know better on all these things

How you mean?

[Ockie]

Just further to the article...not going to give anything away...it might be sensitive info....but there are two extra security measures that have been in place for a long time now to help prevent someone from doing a unauthorised sim swop on somones line. These measures are not in place with at least one other operator that I know for a fact.

I agree with the article. When it comes to the SMS that gets sent when sim swop is in progress...it is real...take note of it...it is happening and if you are the contract holder and do not know anything about it...contact Vodacom immediately.

[wily me]

This is why Capitec's OTP dongle is so awesome, SIM swap won't help the fraudsters

Like the Standard bank one? Just a pity it does not work on their Internet banking per se'

[marine1]

The other day the bank called me, I know for a fact that it was the bank, they asked me who was speaking I told them, they then asked me for my Identity number I told the guy you called me, don't ask me to confirm anything, if you called me you would know it and you should have better security measures.
Bloody useless idiots

[Dolby]

Fnb also had the dongle ... But discontinued it :/

[SoftDux-Rudi]

Fnb also had the dongle ... But discontinued it :/

I'm rather disappointed about that since it gave us a lot of extra security. But their enterprise banking now have a 2 way "locking" mechanism which is sometimes annoying but handy. We basically need to authorize each PC or laptop that can access our business bank account, and then use a secure certificate, which is downloaded to the PC todo anything. So even if they do get my cellphone they can't do much with it.

BUT, FNB doesn't have this for their "personal accounts", which I think they should look at introducing as well.

[jikajoe1]

sjoooh! when i was about to join this cellphone banking thing, now this, hell nooo! I was always skeptical of this banking system because of the cellphone number being the major part of it. We all know phones can be stolen in this country and even if you report them to be blacklisted, tomorrow they will be 'opened' and functioning as if nothing has happened. I have a belief that networks have these phones as their customers. Prove me wrong.