One victim of SIM swap fraud wants to tell you their story. In addition to a month of their own stress and loss, they were then incurred potentially devastating personal and financial consequences by what had transpired. The nightmare started when the victim began getting unwanted messages from EE. Since we have sent them a SIM activation request, they are supposed to activate it within 24 hours.
The victim was in the midst of preventing the fraudulent SIM activation. It was EE’s reckless behavior that led things to get completely out of hand. Following the activation, the victim’s cellphone stopped working, cutting them off from essential communication and services. In the aftermath, they discovered unauthorized withdrawals from their bank account and permanent loss of two longstanding email accounts, which had become irretrievable.
The situation quickly took a turn when the hacker turned on their own two-factor authentication. They put in place things that prevented any requests in to change the password. This change enabled the perpetrator to change the victim’s lifelong mobile number, doing so effectively locking them out of their digital identity. The victim and the hacker ended up on a call with EE simultaneously. This created an even greater context of chaos and upset for the victim.
For four weeks, the victim suffered tremendous anxiety and emotional pain as he dealt with the consequences of this episode. They incurred tremendous losses, including loss of invaluable data and money, while trying to get ahold of EE’s customer service. Their experience with the company quickly became a nightmare. They painted a picture of the customer relations experience as incomprehensible, leaving them confused and frustrated.
EE has attempted to downplay the incident by blaming the bad timing on a coincidence. They claim that an onslaught of unique requests triggered the fraudulent SIM to turn on by itself in the background. Though certainly they accept the victim’s pain, they continue to insist that they were doing what they need to do in their process.
Victims of SIM swap fraud are still dealing with the ramifications of these hacks. This incident demonstrates major weaknesses in mobile service operations. Victims of trafficking face an immeasurable emotional distress and financial burden. This leads to more questions on how these companies will fix security matters going forward.