As of: February 17, 2024, 6:53 a.m
By: Philipp Bräuner
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Criminals are using a new scam to steal their victims' access to their mobile phone accounts.
This can potentially have devastating consequences.
Kassel – It sounds like a friendly exchange, but it is a sneaky scam: SIM swapping.
Criminals obtain a new cell phone card in the name of their victim.
But as if that wasn't bad enough, they also make the affected person's SIM card unusable.
The scam has now taken on a further dimension with the electronic equivalent, e-SIM swapping.
A man from Hesse recently defended himself against another scam.
What exactly is SIM swapping?
– Police report on a case in Brandenburg
How this works can be illustrated by a case that, according to the Brandenburg police, occurred in the Spree-Neiße district.
A woman was called there by what was supposed to be a postman and asked for permission to leave a package.
According to the report, a numerical code was sent to her cell phone, which she was supposed to tell the man on the phone.
The police report does not say whether she complied with the request.
Criminals are using a new scam to rob their victims of their mobile phone data - and can often use it to crack even more accounts.
© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
Immediately after she hung up, her SIM card and phone were blocked.
But that's not all: according to the police, the fraudsters bought prepaid cards on the cell phone bill a short time later.
The victim's eBay account was also hacked.
Recently, a brazen scam on classified ads also caused a stir.
Fraud difficult to understand – LKA explains the background
E-SIM swapping is so perfidious because the criminals' approach is quite difficult to understand at first glance.
The situation is different, for example, with the grandchild trick, in which money or valuables are immediately demanded.
When it comes to e-SIM swapping, the fraudsters take advantage of a mechanism at some mobile phone providers that is actually intended to help customers, the LKA Lower Saxony explains to
dpa
.
You can request a log-in code online, which you can use to open your customer account, just by providing your telephone number.
If this code is then passed on to the criminals over the phone, as in the example from Brandenburg, the account with the mobile phone provider is cracked.
In a scam, criminals create an electronic SIM card on their own cell phone
There the criminals can then create an electronic SIM card and install it on their own device.
But that's not all: Since some online banking and email accounts are linked to the cell phone number, "SIM swapping" also opens the door to criminals.
The LKA Lower Saxony speaks to
dpa
in this case of a “total loss” for those affected.
Nothing stands in the way of resetting further online accounts.
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Be careful, telephone fraud: under no circumstances should you answer your cell phone with these telephone numbers
The police have some tips for preventing such fraud:
You should always be skeptical of calls that ask you to provide personal information, passwords or codes.
If necessary, interrupt the phone call to ask directly the organization or institute that is supposedly calling you.
Talk to your family or knowledgeable acquaintances about it and get information about such attempted fraud.
According to dpa
, the LKA advises those affected who have actually fallen into the scammers' trap
to check all online accounts carefully.
It is important to document the procedure step by step, take screenshots and finally take the collected material to a nearby police station to file a report.
Consumers should also be wary of a new online shopping scam.
(
pkb
)