Hackers Drain two Women Life Savings From Bank Account in a Swap Scam
Two women lose a huge sum of money after losing their mobile phones. A New York City resident, Jackie Berman, fell victim to hackers who wiped out her Citibank savings account that had over $26,000 in it. When asked how she felt, she said, “it’s been horrible- the entire experience.
Another victim, a TV executive Heidi Diamond, says the same thing happened to her, with the scammers stealing over $200,000. When asked, she said, she freaked, and went running to the nearest bank.
A new Scam Unfolds
The women’s ordeals are two instances of a new scam known as SIM swapping. This happens when hackers first steal your personal information online, then contact mobile phone carrier and trick them into activating a SIM card.
Once that occurs, scammers gain control over your phone, passwords, and pretty much everything else. Posing as the legitimate owner, the scammers then contact their victims’ bank and transfer all the cash out of the account.
For Heidi Diamond, things got better after Inside Edition contacted Citibank on her behalf. They cut her a check for the full amount she lost — all $200,025.
But Jackie Berman was not fortunate. Four months after first reporting the fraud, she says she’s still missing all that money. In her frustration, she stated that Citibank continually denied her.
CITIBANK TIPS ON GUARDING AGAINST FRAUDS
The bank in response offered tip on how to prevent such attacks. One of them is to use known links to access businesses online. They also advised that if you receive a one-time passcode that you didn’t request, ‘Do Not’ share it with anyone else.
They call on users to verify that any phone text or email contacts are legitimate before sharing any personal information like passwords, contact, user ID, and PIN. Lastly, they warned customers to be leery of requests to download apps to fix issues or that allow access to your device.
