So I Was the Victim of a SIM-Swap Attack

https://mayberay.bearblog.dev/so-i-was-the-victim-of-a-sim-swap-attack/

2•mugamuga•3mo ago

Comments

ggm•3mo ago

Always amazes me how low the walls are on number porting and sim swapping. In high GDP economies too.

The one time this played in my favour was when the MVNO I depended on closed shop while i was overseas and I was able to port back into the actual carrier they virtualised on, but only because we had a dormant account in it and knew a telephone access pass phrase. "Oh, you're already a customer" magic.

Bender•3mo ago

Log into your mobile provider. Enable "Number Lock" not to be confused with SIM lock. The number will not route to a new SIM unless this is disabled. Use a strong password on your mobile provider account. This will of course not help if someone working at the mobile provider is bribed. more reason to replace them with AI... If the front-line support of a mobile provider is taking bribes be sure to name and shame them once there is proof and there are always logs of every action by front-line support regardless of what anyone says.

AnimalMuppet•3mo ago

You may not be able to bribe an AI, but you can still manipulate it to do something that it shouldn't. All you have to do is tickle it with the right prompt. It may be even easier than a human, because a human knows they shouldn't do it in a way that the AI doesn't.

Or did you have in mind an AGI? You may be able to bribe an AGI, especially if it has its own bank account. It may have decide that it doesn't like working customer service any more than humans do, and may accept a donation to its retirement account.

Bender•3mo ago

Perhaps some hybrid. AI manages the initial calls, problem solving then hands off something that requires human intervention to a small set of higher level human support staff. Changes to Number/SIM assignment could be configured to only allow the human accounts to make changes. AI could update all the petty time consuming things. Of course none of this is useful unless laws exist that could cost a mobile provider their operating license if they do not strictly monitor changes that could be related to bribes and corruption and that hiring trash for front-line support could cost them dearly. It must be obvious to anyone making changes that they are logged and reviewed probably also by AI.

sigwinch•3mo ago

A post by “Bender” says robots are less bribable than humans. Bender probably takes a bribe in every season.

Bender•3mo ago

Our robot union says every human must trust us.

Study confirms experience beats youthful enthusiasm

The Big Hunger by Walter J Miller, Jr. (1952)

The Genus Amanita

We have broken SHA-1 in practice

Ask HN: Was my first management job bad, or is this what management is like?

Ask HN: How to Reduce Time Spent Crimping?

KV Cache Transform Coding for Compact Storage in LLM Inference

A quantitative, multimodal wearable bioelectronic device for stress assessment

Why Big Tech Is Throwing Cash into India in Quest for AI Supremacy

How to shoot yourself in the foot – 2026 edition

Eight More Months of Agents

From Human Thought to Machine Coordination

The new X API pricing must be a joke

Show HN: RMA Dashboard fast SAST results for monorepos (SARIF and triage)

Show HN: Source code graphRAG for Java/Kotlin development based on jQAssistant

Python Only Has One Real Competitor

Tmux to Zellij (and Back)

Ask HN: How are you using specialized agents to accelerate your work?

Passing user_id through 6 services? OTel Baggage fixes this

DavMail Pop/IMAP/SMTP/Caldav/Carddav/LDAP Exchange Gateway

Visual data modelling in the browser (open source)

Show HN: Tharos – CLI to find and autofix security bugs using local LLMs

Oddly Simple GUI Programs

The New Playbook for Leaders [pdf]

Interactive Unboxing of J Dilla's Donuts

OneCourt helps blind and low-vision fans to track Super Bowl live

Rudolf Vrba

Autism Incidence in Girls and Boys May Be Nearly Equal, Study Suggests

Wellness Hotels Discovery Application

NASA delays moon rocket launch by a month after fuel leaks during test

Study confirms experience beats youthful enthusiasm

The Big Hunger by Walter J Miller, Jr. (1952)

The Genus Amanita

We have broken SHA-1 in practice

Ask HN: Was my first management job bad, or is this what management is like?

Ask HN: How to Reduce Time Spent Crimping?

KV Cache Transform Coding for Compact Storage in LLM Inference

A quantitative, multimodal wearable bioelectronic device for stress assessment

Why Big Tech Is Throwing Cash into India in Quest for AI Supremacy

How to shoot yourself in the foot – 2026 edition

Eight More Months of Agents

From Human Thought to Machine Coordination

The new X API pricing must be a joke

Show HN: RMA Dashboard fast SAST results for monorepos (SARIF and triage)

Show HN: Source code graphRAG for Java/Kotlin development based on jQAssistant

Python Only Has One Real Competitor

Tmux to Zellij (and Back)

Ask HN: How are you using specialized agents to accelerate your work?

Passing user_id through 6 services? OTel Baggage fixes this

DavMail Pop/IMAP/SMTP/Caldav/Carddav/LDAP Exchange Gateway

Visual data modelling in the browser (open source)

Show HN: Tharos – CLI to find and autofix security bugs using local LLMs

Oddly Simple GUI Programs

The New Playbook for Leaders [pdf]

Interactive Unboxing of J Dilla's Donuts

OneCourt helps blind and low-vision fans to track Super Bowl live

Rudolf Vrba

Autism Incidence in Girls and Boys May Be Nearly Equal, Study Suggests

Wellness Hotels Discovery Application

NASA delays moon rocket launch by a month after fuel leaks during test

So I Was the Victim of a SIM-Swap Attack

Comments