There’s a new scam that hackers are using to take over your email, social media and even your bank accounts. It’s called SIM swapping and it involves the hackers calling your cell provider and pretending to be you. If successful in fooling the cell phone carrier, the hacker requests a new SIM card for your phone. They might say that the phone is lost, stolen or broken. When they receive a new SIM card, they can take over your cell phone number and access accounts linked to your phone.
Experts say that you won’t even know that you’ve been a target of the scam until you notice that your cell phone has lost service.