'Terrifying' phone porting scam stealing millions but cybersecurity experts say it's unavoidable
'Terrifying' phone porting scam stealing millions but cybersecurity experts say it's unavoidable
Claire Harrison says she's still recovering from losing her identity and tens of thousands of dollars by mobile porting fraud, where scammers port your mobile number to another device.
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I think the fault lies squarely in the hands of telcos. They're meant to send you an SMS or call you to confirm any port before it happens. If they're not following those rules they should be held liable.
On another note I wish banks and other financial institutions would provide other 2FA options in addition to SMS. It's just crazy that I have better security tech on my Steam account than my bank account.
but they call and pretend to be you and get the number ported to the SIM they have
check out the Hot Swaps episode of Darknet Diaries
But shouldn't part of that process involve verifying the customer on the phone is currently in possession of the number? ie. Sending a text with a code and having you read the code back to them. Perhaps they manage this by fooling the victim into giving them that info through some other method.
Edit: thanks for the podcast recommendation btw, subscribed and downloading now!
They usually do the latter, by pretending to have lost their phone, and verifying through some other means, whether that be from the code, or questions.
Yeah I listened to the podcast recommended a few replies back, great episode if you haven't listened already - it's hilarious how easily they can social engineer their way into accounts once they know the process:
This has baffled me for years - why don't they allow MFA through Google Authenticator or equivalent? Especially when this has been a known security issue for so long. Aussie banks are really behind the times on this one.