MTN, one of South Africa’s biggest mobile network operators, has alerted customers of a SIM swap scam currently taking place.
According to Bridget Bhengu, spokesperson for MTN, a scammer poses as an MTN call centre agent and calls a customer to request their security details.
The scammer supposedly requires the information to block an illegal SIM swap request.
“The scamsters phone on the pretext that they are blocking the processing of a SIM swap request that was made on the subscriber’s number without their knowledge or authorisation,” Bridget explains.
“The scammers will then use the customer’s responses that they obtained during the call to perform a fraudulent SIM swap.”
She also adds the options available to customers, should they wish to do a SIM swap.
“When performing a SIM swap, customers have a couple of options available to them. For post-paid, customers are required to visit an MTN store to activate their SIM swap, and they will be required to produce an identity document.
“For prepaid, customers are able to process a SIM swap via a USSD code, call centre or by visitinan a MTN store. When opting to visit an MTN store, subscribers will be required to produce an identity document. Subscribers who choose to activate remotely will be required to complete security questions.
“In our continued quest to combat fraud and scams‚ again we urge our customers not to respond to unsolicited calls and requests for their security details from an unknown number
