SIM card mistake could cost South Africans money
South Africans who still use physical SIM cards must ensure they have enabled a PIN on these cards to avoid potentially being defrauded by phone thieves and their accomplices.
A recent article by Dr Gbenga Odegbami, a prominent Nigerian technology entrepreneur and CEO of Youverify, highlighted the risk of not setting a PIN on a SIM card if your phone got stolen.
Odegbami explained that one of his colleagues had ₦300,000 (R3,564) taken from his bank account after a thief snatched his iPhone from his car while he sat in traffic in Lagos.
“His iPhone was locked, encrypted, and protected by Face ID. The thief never touched any of it,” Odegbami said.
“He pulled the SIM, dropped it into a cheap Android handset, and used banking channels that still treat possession of a phone number as proof of identity.”
Odegbami said stealing money in this way required no hacking, malware, or phishing link, only that the victim did not set a PIN on their SIM or left it at a weak default.
“You move a SIM from one handset to another, the line wakes up, and you start testing the channels that still trust SIM possession,” he said.
“It helps the thief that most of us never set a SIM PIN, and that the networks still ship them with a default of 0000, so the SIM simply connects in its new home,”
Odegbami said that having access to a victim’s cellular number opened up a surprising number of sensitive channels.
Many online account recovery and reset journeys still lean on SMS and only require information that is either publicly available or is trivial to guess.
That information can include a date of birth, an account number, or static personal details available on social media.
Criminals can exploit these weak points to compromise user accounts linked to their phone numbers, including those with a linked payment card.
Steps to take if phone is stolen — and how to avoid swaps
Another way to avoid this particular threat is to use an embedded SIM (eSIM). These digital SIM cards are tied to a chip integrated into the phone.
As long as the victim has a lock screen PIN or biometric unlocking set up on their phone, the thief cannot easily access apps or information stored on the device.
However, victims should still be on the lookout for any suspicious messages that ask them to provide a PIN or personal information.
These could be attempts to obtain the necessary data to bypass the lock screen and compromise a victim’s apps, or to steal additional sensitive information.
Regardless of whether you use a physical SIM card or an eSIM, phone theft victims should try to get another person’s phone and immediately request that their network operator hard lock their SIM card.
This will prevent incoming and outgoing phone calls and SMSs to the number linked to that card, potentially avoiding substantial financial losses.
They must also report the incident at a South African Police Service station for a case number, which is necessary to get a new SIM card from their network.
Mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) users must request a SIM lock via their particular providers’ customer contact centre.
For example, Afrihost Air Mobile subscribers must call 0800 011 000 or WhatsApp 071 883 5005 to request a lock.
The appropriate channels for requesting a SIM card lock on the four major mobile networks are outlined in the table below.
| Network | Contact channel for locking SIM card |
|---|---|
| Vodacom | 082 135 |
| MTN | 083 135 |
| Telkom | 081 180 |
| Cell C | 084 135 |
| Rain | askrain.rain.co.za |
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