What is ‘trade’ and how can you protect yourself from this type of scam?

As it is increasingly common for all daily activities to require the use of these devices, cybercriminals find new ways to deceive their victimsgaining more complexity and complexity over time.

identity fraud

One of them is called SIM swap‘, a scam by cybercriminals Attempting to fraudulently copy the SIM card As specified by the Internet Security Office (OSI), a user’s device

First, the attacker spoofs your identity to get a copy of your card. To do this, they contact the card’s telephone operator by phone and provide the victim’s personal information, such as name and identification number.

Cybercriminals may have gathered this data through other social engineering attacks (such as SMS fraud, ‘phishing’ or identity theft from companies themselves) as well as by examining your social networks.

Another way to access sensitive information about victims is to fraudulent app downloads on your devicesor after connecting to free or fake Wi-Fi networks.

After all the data is collected and the operator of the company is called, scammers can demand dual SIM cards. In this way, a new card is created and the card belonging to the legal user is invalidated.

coverage is lost

Later on, victim is left without phone serviceso the mobile device cannot identify the SIM card, does not reflect the coverage and does not allow sending or receiving SMS.

Cybercriminals, on the other hand, will be able to access your personal information and take control of your applications by impersonating your identity in social networks, e-mail accounts or digital banking.

In this way, you can carry out banking transactions as you wish, as, among other things, you control the notifications that these services usually offer to confirm the sending and receiving of money transfers.

How to avoid being a victim of ‘trading’?

Because it is a very common scam and also complex to stop, the OSI recommends taking a number of precautions to avoid falling victim to this increasingly common scam.

first one contact phone company if it is excluded from coverage for no apparent reason, such as portability to another operator. In addition, it is appropriate to set up two-factor authentication as an additional precaution.

To do this, apps to protect your security such as Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator can be used and downloaded as alternative two-factor methods.

Same way, update your account recovery optionsif cybercriminals manage to gain access to other personal accounts to collect the information necessary to perform the ‘exchange’.

Special attention should also be paid to the information provided through social networks or public channels and the Privacy Settings options of these platforms.

Finally, it is recommended Download apps from official stores like Google Play or Apple Store exclusively, as well as periodically updating access credentials.