The desire to remain anonymous when making calls or using the internet is one of the top reasons why people choose to buy “street” SIM cards. But their use carries many risks, at best – irreversible loss of the number. This was told socialbites.ca by Dmitry Mihaylov, the business manager of the CosmoVisa service (specializing in providing chargeback services and ensuring customer security on the Internet).
“The main feature of a gray SIM card is that its recipient is not the official owner. This SIM already has an official owner. Before being offered for sale, a SIM card is registered for a fake natural person or for a legal entity – as a rule, a registered daily company for a fake natural person, ”the expert said.
As a rule, small traders are engaged in trading “gray” SIM cards. They receive income from mobile operators both from the sale of SIM cards and to replenish the balance.
“Mobile operators are looking for additional channels to sell their services. They make agency agreements with intermediaries for the sale of SIM cards. The condition of these agency agreements is to pay the agents a fee for loading the balance and using the SIM card. The condition can be a one-time payment with a large percentage of the initial replenishment (which is why sellers want to replenish the balance immediately, and the SIM card is claimed to be free), or it can be a systematic payment of a small percentage of the entire replenishment. they hold throughout the year. A representative who has previously obtained a SIM card from a mobile operator can register it with someone (an individual or a shell company) to enable quick selling on the street without the need to obtain the buyer’s passport data, ”said the expert. .
The main problem is that the actual user of the “gray” SIM card is not the owner. Whereas, the person or company to which the SIM card is registered can dispose of it at its own discretion as the owner.
“Scammers can sell SIM cards registered to them, candidates or companies to people on the street, then calculate the most interesting numbers from the details of the expenditures, and finally, as legitimate owners, they can buy duplicate SIM cards from mobile phone shops. After that, they can use the numbers of these SIM cards to enter various personal accounts associated with this number (social networks, instant messengers, mobile banking, marketplaces and other sites where purchases are made and bank card details are left). Access to many sites and accounts of mobile banks is carried out by confirming the code received in an SMS message. In terms of Federal Law No. 63-FZ of April 6, 2011 (“On Electronic Signature”), an SMS code is a kind of simple electronic signature. Almost any personal account will allow its owner to enter it after entering the SMS code, ”Michaelov warned.
Another risk of buying a SIM card from the street is the risk of being blocked. If for any reason a criminal case is brought against the real owner of the SIM card, all the numbers belonging to him can be blocked and the person who bought this SIM card will have to say goodbye to the already loved number. money in phone balance.
“Even if we’re not talking about scammers, a SIM card can easily break (for example, damage the chip during installation on another phone) or get lost. You will not be able to restore the number, since you are not the official owner, ”the expert said.
The former Russians warned from sending documents and personal data in instant messengers.