By Nishit Singh Raghuwanshi
Digital scams are ever-growing and evolving in India. The latest one grabbing all the eyeballs is the SIM swap fraud. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), India, has issued a warning suggesting that smartphone users are at risk of SIM swap fraud as the cases are increasing exponentially in the country. The advisory by DoT has asked the users to be more attentive when it comes to sharing their details with any unknown individual. These scammers pretend to be SIM service representatives. All the users have been urged to report suspicious calls and messages. SIM Swap Fraud Details And Tips To Stay Safe In the SIM swap fraud, the scammers use techniques from the books of social engineering. It typically involves the scammer first reaching out to the victim as a SIM service representative and taking all the personal information from them. Then they use this information at the telecom service provider’s customer service by impersonating the victim with the help of gathered personal details. They ask for a SIM swap and back it up with fake scenarios like losing the phone somewhere and more. To curb these kinds of practices DoT has brought new rules like necessary biometric verifications and SMS services being disabled for 24 hours from the time it is activated. This creates a blockage for the scammers to get OTPs in case they successfully conduct a SIM swap. To stay safe, smartphone users should avoid sharing sensitive information with suspicious people. Not clicking malicious links from unknown sources is a non-negotiable practice that can keep you safe. Apart from that, avoid sharing your personal details on just any third-party application or platform. Get Latest News live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Technology Science and around the world.