Japan "Sim Swap" Phone Hijacking Scam Steals Millions

Japan has seen a spate of "SIM swap scams," in which cell phone numbers are hijacked and misused and victims notice that their smartphone won't connect, learning in the process their SIM card has been reissued or that someone has switched their number to another carrier.

Photo Insert: All of the victims end up losing money from their bank accounts.

All of the victims end up losing money from their bank accounts, Shohei Kato reported for Mainichi Japan.

In one case, an illicit transfer reportedly occurred only about 15 minutes after one victim's number was hijacked. One afternoon in July 2022, Ryuji Tanigawa, 61, a port transportation business owner in Kobe, noticed that he could no longer make calls on his phone.

He went to a mobile phone shop and learned what had happened. Someone at a sales outlet in the city of Nagaokakyo in Kyoto Prefecture had canceled his contract and switched his number to another carrier.

He had a bad feeling and checked his Internet banking account. It was then that he found around 10 million yen (about $71,000) had been transferred to a person he didn't know.

The process goes something like this: First, the scammer sends a text to the person's phone, leading it to a fake phishing website that steals their information. The data is then used for a fake ID to claim the person has lost their phone, allowing a new SIM card to be issued and the contract to be canceled.

The obtained SIM card is then inserted into a smartphone held by the criminal group. With the cell phone number taken over, the victim's mobile connection is cut off. The scammer then logs in to the victim's internet banking account after getting the person's online banking password and other information exposed via the phishing site.

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