MEMPHIS, Tenn. — It’s a growing scam called sim-swapping where scammers take over your cell service without ever touching your phone.
Tonight, we’re hearing from one woman scammed out of thousands of dollars.
We explain how it happens and what steps you can take to keep your phone and ‘your money’ safe.
“I am absolutely terrified,” Jenna said.
Emotionally drained after scammers turned her life upside down, Jenna doesn’t want us to use her last name.
“It’s such a violation,” she said. “And I just feel like I don’t trust anybody.”
Jenna contacted Cricket Wireless after getting a text about changes to her account, then lost service. That’s when she discovered another name was added to her cell plan.
“I was like, oh my god, let me check my account, my bank account,” she said.
Scammers had taken over her phone service, accessed her bank account and used Zelle, the payment transfer app, to swipe $3,500.
They even opened new credit cards.
Turns out her phone’s sim card had been remotely swapped and thieves had stolen her number.
“I understand,” she said. “If I lost my phone, but they just took the number right out of the phone, like through the air.”
It’s called sim swapping, a scammer pretending to be the consumer, contacts the cell provider and convinces the company to switch the service to a sim card in their possession then the bad guy gets all the calls and text messages, including multi-factor authentication codes, used to access bank…
