{"id":77360,"date":"2013-05-08T14:27:24","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T12:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=77360"},"modified":"2013-05-09T17:39:07","modified_gmt":"2013-05-09T15:39:07","slug":"sim-swap-fraud-suspect-caught-mtn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/security\/77360-sim-swap-fraud-suspect-caught-mtn.html","title":{"rendered":"SIM swap fraud suspect caught: MTN"},"content":{"rendered":"

MTN<\/a> participated in a SAPS<\/a> sting operation that has led to the arrest of a suspect said to be a key player in a recent spate of SIM swap fraud, the mobile network said in a press statement issued today (8 May 2013).<\/p>\n

A SIM swap lets mobile network operators port a subscriber\u2019s number to a new SIM card when they switch networks, or if it is lost, but fraudsters have also been using it to access online banking accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMTN\u2019s forensic services team worked closely with the Wierda Brug police in Centurion to track down and arrest an individual linked to the fraudulent SIM swaps of MTN customers and perpetrating further scams nationwide,\u201d the network said.<\/p>\n

For the scam to work, a criminal must first get access to a customer\u2019s bank account details including the PIN and passwords.<\/p>\n

\u201cMTN is not certain as to how this information is compromised, but understands that it can be done through phishing or when a customer\u2019s personal documents such as ID documents are compromised,\u201d the network said.<\/p>\n

Once in possession of these bank details, the fraudster performs a SIM swap and gets possession of the victim\u2019s phone number. Bank notifications, such as random verification numbers and other warning messages meant for the victim, then get sent to the fraudster instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cMTN\u2019s forensic team and Centurion\u2019s Wierda Brug police have made great strides in the tracking and monitoring the suspect\u2019s activities,\u201d said Lily Zondo<\/a>, general manager of business risk at MTN.<\/p>\n

Similar to Vodacom<\/a>, MTN will also be implementing a system to authorise SIM swap by SMS, Zondo said. Unlike Vodacom\u2019s system, however, MTN will wait until a subscriber has confirmed the SMS request to swap SIMs before proceeding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis delays the SIM Swap until the legitimate customer has confirmed the request via SMS,\u201d Zondo said.<\/p>\n

MTN said it is unable to answer any further details regarding the case as it is now \u201csub-judice\u201d.<\/p>\n

More infosec and SIM swap fraud articles<\/h3>\n

Internet banking fraud: watch out for these scammer tricks<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

ABSA SIM swap fraud security feedback<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Internet banking SIM swap fraud: victim reports summary<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Government spyware servers in South Africa: Telkom, Govt mum<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

AARTO website hack: are you at risk?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MTN said that it has helped in a SAPS operation to arrest a suspected SIM swap fraudster<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":76540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[165,35,42,12743,19260],"class_list":["post-77360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-security","tag-fraud","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-sim-swap","tag-sim-swap-fraud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77360"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77360"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77362,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77360\/revisions\/77362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}