The Somme gendarmerie warns against the SIM swapping scam

“You suddenly lose the network? Be careful: a hacker may have just stolen your digital life.” The warning from the Somme gendarmerie is clear. In a Facebook post dated August 27, the men in blue warn against the resurgence of the “SIM swapping” scam, in other words “SIM card exchange”, of which several residents of the department have been victims.

This fraud appeared in France in 2012, according to Bouygues Telecom. Concretely, the objective of hackers is to take over a person's line, with a simple method. They first steal identity information such as name, date of birth, email or postal address, before posing as the victim to their mobile operator, or directly infiltrating their customer account, often protected by a simple password and without a duplicate...