Warning to usurp the right to use the phone SIM, steal money

After hijacking the right to use the SIM, the crooks will take the victim’s credit card number to make online payments or withdraw money.
Last time, Ho Chi Minh City Law received many feedbacks from readers about the situation where the phone SIM was taken by someone else leading to the money in the credit card being lost.

Original SIM card but still occupied by others Ms. ATH (in Binh Duong) reflected on 2-3 days, she discovered that her phone displayed a message that could not be called, so she went to VNPT Binh Duong Business Center to ask for a check. Here, the technical staff said that the SIM card is not damaged, still works two-way. On March 4, she went to the center to ask for a new SIM card. After that, the phone works normally. On March 12, Ms. H. logged into her credit card account to check and found that the money in the account had been withdrawn in the form of payment for purchases. Suspecting that her SIM information was exposed during the SIM rework, Ms. H. went to VNPT Binh Duong Business Center to find out. Only now did she know that on 2-3 days there was a transaction to replace her SIM at a VNPT center in Ho Chi Minh City. Ms. H. said that this SIM phone number has been registered by her owner before. Now suddenly my SIM was declared and appropriated by someone else, leading to the loss of her credit card more than 58 million dong. “During the settlement process, the representative of VNPT HCMC (where the SIM exchange happened) said he would support me with a scratch card worth 2 million VND, but I did not accept it. The main reason for losing money is because the network operator re-issued the SIM in the wrong process, not because of me, “- Ms. H. shared. Ms. ATH was upset because someone else took control of her phone SIM, so her credit account lost more than 58 million dong. Photo: DANG LE Another case is Mr. Trieu Duc Khai (in Thai Binh) also said on April 21, he made a complaint to VNPT Center in Thai Thuy district, Thai Binh. The content of the complaint about his VinaPhone SIM, although registered by the owner, was still controlled by others, leading to the loss of 35 million VND in his credit card. Through working with VNPT in Thai Thuy district, it was determined that someone had impersonated him to carry out the procedure to lose the SIM and make a new SIM with the subscriber number that Mr. Khai was using. This person only declared five phone numbers to call out, come to the nearest, and then be given a new SIM. Occupying SIM is a trick to appropriate money Exchange with Ho Chi Minh City Law Vo Do Thang, Director of Athena International Security and Network Administration Training Center, said that through the two cases above, it shows that if anyone reports the loss of SIM and only needs to provide five phone numbers to call. going, calling recently, committing to subscriber owner rights to be re-issued with a new SIM is not good at all. This has created a loophole for crooks to steal other people’s SIMs, to the detriment of genuine SIM users. According to Mr. Thang, most of the victims in the SIM loss cases were taken by fraudsters by making online payments. To pay for online purchases, there are three factors: The first is a mobile phone number. The credit card holder must register this phone number with the bank to authenticate transactions and receive bank notifications. The second is the card number (a series of numbers printed on the front of the credit card). The third is the OTP (one-time password) verification code sent to the phone number registered with the bank. In the working minutes and written responses to Ms. H. and Mr. Khai, the network operator confirmed that re-issuing SIM cards to others was not in accordance with the process. Photo: DANG LE. After hijacking the right to use the SIM, the crooks will take the victim’s credit card number to pay online, then use the newly issued SIM to receive the OTP code and complete the payment. The victim’s credit card number has been stolen by the crooks before, appropriating the phone SIM is only the last step to perform the act of appropriating money. According to Mr. Thang, not everyone who loses their phone SIM will lose money in their credit cards and bank accounts. Only when they have had their credit card or account information exposed before can crooks steal money. The victim’s credit card information may be exposed during previous online transactions. The cause is usually because the victim has filled out information on fraudulent websites, installed malicious code on the phone to steal card information, opened attachments of unknown origin or it can also be due to credit institutions. does not guarantee safety in terms of security,” Thang shared. In the working minutes and written responses to Ms. H. and Mr. Khai, the network operator confirmed that re-issuing SIM cards to others was not in accordance with the process. Photo: DANG LE The network operator did the wrong process In both cases mentioned above, in the process of working with customers, the operator has confirmed that the teller when carrying out the SIM reissuance procedure only requires the customer to provide five outgoing and incoming phone numbers. subscriber ownership is not the correct procedure. In response to the recent complaint of VNPT Center in Thai Thuy district, Thai Binh province against Mr. Trieu Duc Khai, it is clear that because of this unfortunate incident, VNPT Center of Thai Thuy district has apologized to customers. The material damage that the impostor causes to the customer, the center will fix and compensate for the loss. As for the case of Ms. ATH, VNPT HCMC said that it will accompany the customer to provide necessary information to serve the investigation agency.