SIM swap scams are everywhere and for the Australian Media and Communications Authority (ACMA), these kinds of schemes need to be stopped.
As part of the agency's consumer protection plan, a new set of policies will be implemented to bar scammers from victimizing millions of telco customers.
ACMA to Put an End to SIM Swap Scams
According to the latest report by ZDNET on Friday, April 8, AMCA will enforce a new set of policies to ensure the safety of the telco users against potential sim swapping attacks.
As such, the statutory agency will impose tighter security checks for the identity of the individuals.
In doing so, there is a need to use online verification services from the government as part of the Trusted Digital Identity Framework and the National Identity Proofing Guidelines.
Moreover, the safety measures will bar the threat actors from scamming users. ACMA looks forward to lower engagements of the customers in "high-risk transactions." These include disclosure of personal details, requests for swapping SIMs, and alterations in the accounts.
Related Article: SIM Swapping Scam: FCC Wants to Amend Current Rules to Prevent Hackers From Exploiting Phone Numbers
New Rules to Take Effect by June 30
In a similar report, the federal government's task force will roll out the new policies on June 30, 2022. The group chair Fiona Cameron confirmed that the rules will take effect under Telecommunications Service Provider (Customer Identity Authentication) Determination) 2022.
For the past year, ACMA saw that the scammers reportedly attacked at least 510 accounts. At that time, the agency said that this alone resulted in AU$4.68 million loss or US$3.5 million.
Out of this number, the largest loss that's ever reported in a single case reached AU$463,782 or over US$347,000.
"SIM-swap scams can cause a lot of harm as scammers take control of your phone number and then use that to gain access to your online banking accounts. We expect these rules will go a long way to stamping out unauthorized transactions like SIM-swap fraud and improve safeguards for telco customers," Cameron said.
Per Paul Fletcher, Australia's Minister for Communications, the new anti-sim swapping policies will prevent scammers from conducting scams which he described as "harmful" and "costly."
Fletcher added that the fraud will be addressed through the use of a multi-factor authentication process. As scammers rely on getting confidential information from their victims, it's always important to secure the personal account at all costs.
Telstra on SIM Swapping Incidents
For instance, telecom provider Telstra previously observed a myriad of incidents of SIM swapping. The company arrived with the idea of launching effective methods to prevent one-time codes from being sent as SMS to the user's device.
Without the person's knowledge, the malicious actors might steal their data through an SMS from an unknown sender. At this point, the firm wants to explore launching an anti-fraud technique to stop these schemes on the platform.
Recently, Telstra brought a new scam filter feature to block suspicious text messages, Tech Times reported.
If you want to stay protected against potential SIM-swap attacks, you can read Android Police's previous article about that.
Read Also: Hackers Hit About 500 e-Commerce Sites Using Credit Card Skimmers
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Joseph Henry
