Sim Swap Fraud -MTN

BouncyNinja

BouncyNinja

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Evening,

Family member Got hit with an unauthorized SIM swap on MTN.

No OTP, no warning, no call, no nothing. Just “SIM swap complete” and the number was gone.

MTN basically says there’s no proper way to hard-lock a number against swaps from the customer side (135# etc apparently doesn’t actually prevent anything meaningful).

Considering how many services rely on your number for OTP (banking, email recovery, etc), this is pretty worrying.

So I’m curious from those who’ve dealt with this before:

Which network in SA is actually the least terrible when it comes to SIM swap security?

Feels like mobile numbers have basically become part of your identity, yet there’s almost zero proper protection available.
 
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For how long did the family member have that number?
Curious if this is more prevalent with newer or older numbers?

Ive had my mtn number almost 20 years or close to. I would be proper fkd if that gets stolen.
 
Jam Sandwich said:
For how long did the family member have that number?
Curious if this is more prevalent with newer or older numbers?

Ive had my mtn number almost 20 years or close to. I would be proper fkd if that gets stolen.
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Had it for the better part of 20 years

The number was “stolen” via ussd / self help , using a bogus rica SIM card
 
susefan said:
If you can do without VoWIFI and bank with FNB, FNB connect is very secure when it comes to sim swap or number porting.
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Which network are they an fno for? Vodacom coverage is terrible where I work and live
 
BouncyNinja said:
That is an option, but pre-paid works out better financially, just a headache now

Having seen how easy it is, to swap, it’s scary
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I've been through this type of problem.

Go to an MTN store with your sim card.
They will be able to detect that your number belongs to that sim card & they will get your number back.
 
Leisure Larry said:
I've been through this type of problem.

Go to an MTN store with your sim card.
They will be able to detect that your number belongs to that sim card & they will get your number back.
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Was there, yesterday, spent an hour, they say that on the system, the number is registered to mtn, doesnt show up as a contract, nor a prepaid, they couldnt help, went to 2 different stores, same story.


That said, its an issue that shouldnt be as easy as it is, to create. Literally, you have a 1 in 3 shot of stealing someones prepaid number without them even knowing it happened until they loose signal
 
Yeah, these MTN Champions are at times, daft.
Your other option is to not mention that it was stolen.
Just say you want to do a sim swap of that number, you will need an affidavit for this.
They will also ask you some details about the said number, common questions like: last few dialed numbers / when last you recharged.
 
Leisure Larry said:
Yeah, these MTN Champions are at times, daft.
Your other option is to not mention that it was stolen.
Just say you want to do a sim swap of that number, you will need an affidavit for this.
They will also ask you some details about the said number, common questions like: last few dialed numbers / when last you recharged.
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Fraud dept suggested doing exactly that, just go buy a new sim and do a swap,

Their system would not allow it, back to “eish… it is mtn, but the number isn’t a contract or prepaid, have to escalate to sieble “

What/who ever sieble is , it got blamed a lot
 
When/if you get the number back, call the call center and ask them to put the number on the sim swap watchlist. You provide a security question answer and when doing a SIM swap, that password is required.

If it's internal fraud, this wont help much.
 
Rickster said:
When/if you get the number back, call the call center and ask them to put the number on the sim swap watchlist. You provide a security question answer and when doing a SIM swap, that password is required.

If it's internal fraud, this wont help much.
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Thanks, will do this

Surely this should fall under the toothless POPIA bullshit? "Failure to protect customers data"
 
last year, someone wanted to do the sim swap for my number, I phoned to mtn fraud department, I told them to lock the number no further sim swap can be done. made a security question and answer, they said no one can do the sim swap without the question and answer. hope that they didn't lie to me. :p
 
BouncyNinja said:
Fraud dept suggested doing exactly that, just go buy a new sim and do a swap,

Their system would not allow it, back to “eish… it is mtn, but the number isn’t a contract or prepaid, have to escalate to sieble “

What/who ever sieble is , it got blamed a lot
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Siebel

Its the CRM system they use. Basically telling you sorry sir. Cant help you without some lackie checking the backend

Its a fking joke
 
DreamKing said:
last year, someone wanted to do the sim swap for my number, I phoned to mtn fraud department, I told them to lock the number no further sim swap can be done. made a security question and answer, they said no one can do the sim swap without the question and answer. hope that they didn't lie to me. :p
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What I find crazy is the mtn app will bombard you with **** ads all day long, nowhere will it suggest securing your number, nowhere in the app is there an option to maybe set up this security “feature” watchlist thing yourself
 
Really annoyed that our banks still use OTPs to cell numbers. Very archaic and insecure.

Someone there should vibe code a solution to work with authenticator app or something like that.
 
w1z4rd said:
Really annoyed that our banks still use OTPs to cell numbers. Very archaic and insecure.

Someone there should vibe code a solution to work with authenticator app or something like that.
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Imagine linking to google auth

Even that would be a bit more secure than sms

The that said, fnb uses sms as an absolute last resort most of it happens in app
 
BouncyNinja said:
Imagine linking to google auth

Even that would be a bit more secure than sms

The that said, fnb uses sms as an absolute last resort most of it happens in app
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Im with GoTyme. They still havent figured out how to use the app to approve transactions.
 
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