What fresh hell is this? A new cellular scam warning…having your SIM card and associated cellular account stolen.

SIM Card Theft – A Cellular Scam Warning To Be Aware Of

Envision this if you will. You or a loved one has a health event that requires you to go to the hospital. With COVID visitation restrictions, you want to keep the patient from being isolated, so you bring them their cellular phone. You even help them out and make sure they’re attached to the hospital WiFi.

After a time in the hospital and/or rehab center, they come home to find they have no cellular service. In fact, the SIM card is missing from their phone.

Trying to contact the cellular provider, you find out that your PIN no longer works. It takes a while, but you finally are able to verify your identity with the cellular company and reset your PIN. But in the interim, someone has put your SIM card into another phone. They contact the cellular carrier with this phone and falsely verify YOUR identity by getting a one-time security PIN texted to their phone (now using your cell number).

So, they then have the ability to create new phone number accounts. Order upgraded phones for these accounts. And further, they can possibly even hack into financial or social media accounts using a password reset texted to what used to be your phone number.

Avoiding The Scam

Sorry to bring one more reason to hate humanity. But having had to fix this issue and go through the whole “fraud investigation” process, I highly recommend you take steps to avoid this issue if you can.

Minimally, check your cell phone or those of your loved ones who are in situations where it can be stolen.

Google other ways to secure your SIM card. But be careful. In trying to lock my SIM card on my own phone, it required a code from my cellular carrier which I could only get by calling customer support. It was also a pain.

Keep safe out there people!

Current Knitting

Crazy busy this past weekend. But I’m almost finished the Knitted Cross Stitch Scarf I started late last week.

Just a couple more rows of garters stitch, binding off and then weaving in a few ends. I will never get tired of making this design and seeing the beautiful results.