SMS phishing - anyone get arrested?

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Yskas

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I regularly get SMS phishing attacks and have no idea how these criminals are brought to justice. Does anyone know of a successful arrest? What were the steps to nail the criminal?

I reported a sim number to Cell C, which they then deactivated but nothing further - no attempt to alert all the people that received similar fraudulent sms messages from this number, no attempt to contact the person on their RICA records, no attempt to alert the other networks of the person who registered this simcard. What gives? Obviously a big source of revenue to the mobile networks so little incentive to do anything.
 
Dairyfarmer said:
Mostly because they are sim cards RICA'ed with someone else's details. You can buy these "pre RICA'ed" sims on the street or most small shops.
Click to expand...

Even if the sim is rica'd correctly, it's impossible to prove the person actually sent the message.
 
deweyzeph said:
Even if the sim is rica'd correctly, it's impossible to prove the person actually sent the message.
Click to expand...
Fair point. The “someone hacked my phone” argument.

Will lodge a case with the police against the current registered RICA owner as a facilitator or perpetrator and then see what happens as they subpoena Cell C.

RICA Section 40(5) …any customer who sells or in any manner provides an activated SIM-card to a person, other than a family member, and the person who is to receive the SIM-card must, immediately upon the sale or provision of the SIM-card, provide the relevant electronic communication service provider with—
(a) the full names, surname and identity number of the customer; …

In terms of section 51 (3B) a person who fails to comply with section 40(5) is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine (not exceeding R60 000) or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months.

https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/its-illegal-to-prerica-sim-cards--govt
 
Yskas said:
Fair point. The “someone hacked my phone” argument.

Will lodge a case with the police against the current registered RICA owner as a facilitator or perpetrator and then see what happens as they subpoena Cell C.

RICA Section 40(5) …any customer who sells or in any manner provides an activated SIM-card to a person, other than a family member, and the person who is to receive the SIM-card must, immediately upon the sale or provision of the SIM-card, provide the relevant electronic communication service provider with—
(a) the full names, surname and identity number of the customer; …

In terms of section 51 (3B) a person who fails to comply with section 40(5) is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine (not exceeding R60 000) or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months.

https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/its-illegal-to-prerica-sim-cards--govt
Click to expand...

Will be funny if you are the owner, with your details having been entered willy nilly by some guy for 1000s of SIMs without your knowledge.
 
Yskas said:
Fair point. The “someone hacked my phone” argument.

Will lodge a case with the police against the current registered RICA owner as a facilitator or perpetrator and then see what happens as they subpoena Cell C.

RICA Section 40(5) …any customer who sells or in any manner provides an activated SIM-card to a person, other than a family member, and the person who is to receive the SIM-card must, immediately upon the sale or provision of the SIM-card, provide the relevant electronic communication service provider with—
(a) the full names, surname and identity number of the customer; …

In terms of section 51 (3B) a person who fails to comply with section 40(5) is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine (not exceeding R60 000) or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding 12 months.

https://www.politicsweb.co.za/documents/its-illegal-to-prerica-sim-cards--govt
Click to expand...
Pretty easy to spoof the number it's coming from if you're on the same cell tower.

And then if they used a bulk sms provider, you can't really sue them, most bulk providers do have spam filters and attempted phishing in place, but it's pretty difficult to tell between legit and not legit ones, when people report them the links and account are usually blacklisted.

Then picking up a pre-RICA SIM is also not that difficult, and a majority of the time it's some dude's details who got their identity compromised, that process is just an ID check where you can't even confirm the picture on it.

The biggest issue is that RICA needs a system in place that the user can check against how many SIMs are registered in their name, but you can't really expect the average person in South Africa to check that, most don't even check their credit record for fraud.
 
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