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It’s a scam that is causing more and more damage in France. The SIM card scam today targets up to 65% of French people according to figures cited by our colleagues at TF1. What exactly is it, what are the risks, and how to avoid the worst?? This is what we will see in this article.
It all starts with an SMS
You will first receive a message from your operator (often by SMS). It tells you that a new SIM card is available. If you are not the originator of this request, you are invited to click on a link.
As we will have understood, the latter is fraudulent, and it links to a false website of the operator where you must enter your usernames and passwords. The scammer can then recover this information and usurp your identity from the real operator to order a new card and actually take control of your telephone plan, which you however continue to pay!
What are the risks ?
This scam is all the more formidable as the SMS sent are more and more impeccable spellingly, which improves their credibility. The same goes for fake operator sites which are increasingly better imitated. Caution is in any case required, because, as the first channel reports, some victims saw their bill skyrocket to 1,500 euros after being targeted by this attack.
How to protect yourself from danger ?
Faced with this now very concrete risk, it is important to adopt the right reflexes. So, when you receive an SMS, you must carefully examine the message and never click on a link. The best thing is to go directly to your account to check if the request is legitimate.
If the damage has been done, it is important to file a complaint. You can also report this scam on the Cybermalveillance.gouv website. This will indeed allow the authorities to better stem this phenomenon to prevent other Internet users from falling victim to these scams.
Unfortunately, the SIM card scam is not new. In February 2023, we returned in particular to these attacks which specifically targeted SFR customers in France. You can always reread our article here.
What you need to remember:
- SIM Card scam starts with phishing
- Scammers then carry out identity theft to take control of your package
- The bill can be steep for the victims
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