SIM - Swap Technique - A Legitimate Customer Request

Abstract

Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) swapping is a legitimate procedure performed by a customer to change their mobile SIM card when the SIM card has been lost, damaged or stolen; or when a customer want to upgrade his SIM from 2G/3G SIM to 4G/5G SIM or when a customer want to move to another mobile telecom service provider-which is called number portability. But fraudsters misuse this SIM swap technique to steal legitimate SIM card user's data which is a cyber fraud through a successful social engineering. As a result, the fraudster gain access to the bank accounts and can receive all the SMS and video calls intended for the legitimate subscriber. Therefore fraudsters can perform online banking frauds. This paper illustrates what SIM swap is and its related issues.