NON SPORTS - SIM card protection
MCMLVTopps
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https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/clark-howard-warns-about-new-scam-called-sim-swap-/27337798/
Clark Howard is a local Atlanta consumer advocate who has provided outstanding advice over the years.
The link above is his warning today about SIM swapping where its possible to have scammers get your information through accessing your SIM card and then they have access to ruin your world. This is the latest scam by thieves.
I have Verizon and it took me less than 30 seconds to lock my SIM card. Whoever you use, go to the security section of your account and lock your SIM card for each # you have on your account.
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Thanks Al!
Wow! This simple thing like having a bank account is getting out of hand. I liked it better 30 years ago and even understood what was going on. Between phones and computers I am having too many problems in todays world. The last 10 years have been too much for me to comprehend. I cant even figure out how to work a cell phone.
Without going into any details, I'm in the world of business. I'm not familiar with this SIM problem, but the malignantly growing number of credit cards getting compromised and hacked is alarming.
Of course the problem is the home base of these criminals is usually from countries that have no legal cooperation with the US. So our criminal justice system, even if law enforcement knows who they are, basically can't do anything about it.
Thanks for the SIM info.
Pls read the link above that I posted. This stuff is for REAL!!! Once the perp has your SIM info, they're off to the races and you will be SERIOUSLY SCREWED!!!
I don't post often about off-Sports topics, but Clark Howard knows his stuff, he's been the local Atlanta Consumer Protection Guru for over 30 years.
Steve...whoever you have for cell service...ask your son to go onto your account and find "SIM protection", its just a few clicks once you get there...be safe!! SIM swapping is no joke.
I don't think anything there is harmful advice, but I see a few things which are misrepresented and/or misleading.
What is SIM swapping? SIM swapping used to mean taking a SIM card from one phone and using it in another. The SIM used to always be a physical device / card which was put into a socket in your phone, router, mobile device. While SIMs are still common (now the nano 4FF and micro 3FF are most prevalent) there are also solder-down SIMs as well as eSIM and iSIM options which many phone manufacturers use.
SIMs are identified by a number referred to as the ICCID.
Phones (the modems in them) are identified by a number referred to as the MEID.
IMSI refers to the subscriber (you).
Most mobile network operators (MNOs) generally lock the ICCID and MEID together with the IMSI preventing you from using your ATT device on another carrier's network without unlocking and transferring. This is also behind the concept of "unlocked phones" which you can bring to any network.
What Clark Howard is suggesting is to protect your account by adding an additional layer of security (secret phrase or pin code) for authentication. Like when your alarm goes off and you're scrambling all over turning off lights and sirens and then your phone rings and they ask you for your "pin" to cancel the dispatch. I think that's good advice separately.
I don't have Verizon so I'm not sure what this does. There is also a thing on your SIM card (physical or digital) which is called a SIM PIN. There's also another thing on your SIM called a PUK. The PIN you can usually set in your device (android or iphone). On iPhone it's under Settings -> Cellular -> SIM Pin. Setting this prevents anyone from accessing things like your contacts. There's not much stored on your SIM anymore (not like messages were in the past) but you can get information about a person's locations with major caveats, and their entire contacts list which is certainly a problem. Setting a SIM PIN to protect this is a good idea.
Getting a separate PC to only do banking? I give this one 2 thumbs down and a bless his heart.
Since this was a 2015 article it wasn't as out-of-date then, but it missed the mark in a few areas regardless.
Businesses all want to text or have you do online. No one wants to do face to face or even talk to live people.
Maybe that is why customer service has mostly turned to crap.
A few quickies if I may. I've never been compromised or hacked, so I must be doing something right.
1: I'm not an expert on this, but early in the internet, around the beginning of the century i think it was, I read about I think it's called keystroke loggers or something like that. In various ways, a scammer might be able to place malware on your computer, in which when you are online, they can't see your screen, however they can see the typing on your keyboard.
So whenever I access my bank info. I have my password pasted in a file offline, I copy that offline using the mouse. Then I log-on, get to my bank's website and paste the password into the password area. No key strokes involved. As with all of them these days, the password is scrambled by those star thingees. So basically it is impossible for a scammer to know my password by using key logging. Even if they could see my screen, that wouldn't do them any good either.
I realize you can set Chrome to automatically do your bank password each time you log-in by saving it. But that always scared me a bit. I'd rather take the extra step and do it the way I've been doing it. IE if it ain't broke don't fix it. I mean I look at my bank account maybe once a week, I'm not too worried about the extra ten seconds it takes to log-in.
2: Many may know this already but it's become even more of a plague lately. Never, and I mean never open up an email from someone you don't know. Scammers have gotten so clever these days it's frightening. Everyone knows not to click the links on those suspicious websites. However they know when you open the email to read it, and this puts you on a cream list of sorts knowing someone is there live opening every email. They must figure if you open up the email, they've at least got a chance to have you click the little button link, and bingo, you may have just infected your computer. If you feel that you did possibly click a malware link, you're gonna need to do a systems restore, from maybe a week ago, and it normally wipes off the virus.
3: Credit cards. I have multiple credit cards that I use for "serious" transactions which I know those websites are perfectly safe. However say I need a $25 part for my refrigerator or whatever, and I've got to shop around to find it, and then buy it from some "unknown" website. I use only one credit card that only has a 1k credit limit. So if the scammer bastiges ever get me, a dime is all they're gonna get. That being said, I've never been hacked or compromised with that card either. I'm careful to try to use only American based companies, even if the price is higher. So if I see a website headquartered in some suspicious foreign land, I'm not about to give my credit card info to them, and that especially includes China.
https://www.aura.com/learn/what-can-someone-do-with-your-sim-card