RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed a new rule on July 11 intended to protect people with cellphones from being victims of “SIM swapping”.
“SIM swapping” occurs when a scammer calls the victim’s cellphone service provider and transfers the victim’s cellphone service to the scammer’s device, according to the FCC.
Another cellphone scam — termed a “port-out request” — occurs when a scammer overtakes a customer’s cellphone number, transferring it to their own provider.
According to the FCC, since many people store important information such as bank accounts and other payment services on their cellphones, scams like “SIM swapping” pose a threat to cellphone users’ information.
The FCC’s proposed rule would require service providers to create a way of verifying the identity of the caller to ensure that it is the customer and not a scammer before redirecting a customer’s phone number to a new device or provider.
It would also require providers to notify customers if their SIM has been changed, or if a “port-out request” has been made under a customer’s account, according to the FCC.
Anyone looking for more information on this proposed rule can look at the PDF available on the FCC’s website.
