In SIM swapping, fraudsters take over your mobile number by having the operator activate a new SIM card in your name. From that moment on, every SMS code lands on their device, including the confirmation code from your crypto exchange. The most effective protection has two steps: two-factor authentication on the exchange account runs through an authenticator app or a hardware key instead of SMS, and a customer password sits with the mobile operator, without which nobody can order a new card over the phone.
This is not a theoretical risk. Anyone holding bitcoin or other coins on an exchange loses them for good in a successful attack: a transfer on the blockchain cannot be recalled, and balances at a crypto exchange carry no deposit protection of the kind a bank has. The attack itself needs no technology. It needs only a member of staff at the customer desk who takes the person on the other end of the line for you.
SIM Swapping Explained: the Fraud at the Mobile Operator's Customer Desk
SIM swapping is the unauthorised move of a mobile number onto a new SIM card controlled by the attacker. The abbreviation SIM stands for subscriber identity module, the module that carries your sub...
English (US)