What is Sim Cloning threat on mobile phones

[Fitzroy]

What is this new Sim Cloning threat that appeared in news recently. Is this a virus. Would it affect all kinds of phone or just on smartphone. I had heard from my friend also that this is some kind of virus that can copy all your sim contacts. That does not looks dangerous. The attackers can have the mobile number what more he can do. I need some information on that.

Has anyone got this virus or face such issue. Is there any way to avoid that. And does this issue is present in all telecom providers or just with someone.

[The$Achilles]

The warning was issued by bsnl. You can read the news on Times on India. There are some call which will on your phone and when you picked the phone, your all sims contacts are imported.

[Orlando]

This does not looks any major threat. It is right that what a guy will do by talking your phone unless you are a vip. I had seen that news which says that you must not respond to numbers that start with +92, #90 or #09. So nex time when you are getting a call check the first two digit of phone number and if they are one of those which is mentioned cut the phone. If you pickup that call with certain automated tool which copy your phone details. This is some scam and many people has already affected with that. There is no major issue involved because of this, no major accidents, no share market fall, etc.

Things look stable. I am sure there are some people involved in this who are fetching data and selling them off. There are intelligence agencies which are working on the same to protect subscribers from such stuff. Anyhow it is recommended that you must not pickup such calls so no confidential information from your phone goes out and the next day you are shocked if something happened. I hope the government must block such things as soon as they can. There are people who can advantage of such stuff. India is quiet market for mobile subscriber and a large part of population can be affected.

[Narmad]

There is nothing to worry about that. It has been warned through news sources and it has not happened in all regions. There are some specific part only. Just keep an eye on those number digits mentioned in above post and ignore those call.

[Kaalicharan]

This looks weird. That means there are people who can play with sim networks. It is not possible to make manual call to hundreds of people for cloning their Sim. The news that I had seen says that it will copy contacts only. But Sim cloning is different thing. This is improperly represented. There are no major issue appeared yet. Check your phone you might get a sms alert from that. The news that I saw showed the problem with bsnl only. But there are preventive measures taken, so you do not need to get worried about the same.

This issue is discussed on many forums. There are rumors which you must ignore and do not believe on that. If you are still doubtful on this then call your service provider and get details from them. It is quiet frustrating for many if you find such things. This simply hurts a users privacy reducing his confidence on the cellular network he using.

[Vivan]

This issue is discussed on many forums. There are rumors which you must ignore and do not believe on that. If you are still doubtful on this then call your service provider and get details from them. It is quiet frustrating for many if you find such things. This simply hurts a users privacy reducing his confidence on the cellular network he using.

This has not happened in Mumbai I think. Because the news that I saw showed me Bangalore and Lucknow. The news says that you will get miss call from those numbers and when you call back your sim details will be copied.

[Dingbang]

That is quiet risky because many time I call back on numbers I do not know. What we need to do is stay alert. As news sites had already published some digits from those numbers (+92, #90 or #09). I have check properly before calling to anyone. I am sure there are number of people who are affected with it. But it is not a matter of worry because yet the government has not declared this as nation wide threat. Companies and intelligence agency are dealing to fight with this. What I found that many people are affected by this. By how does one came to know that this sim is being cloned.

Is there any kind of indication on the screen. We have to ensure that we must not response on those scam numbers. There can be more things that can happen. Smartphones today are increasing and so the loopholes. I had tried to read about Sim cloning on web and found that with this you can copy the details of sim to other. That means you can create multiple sims of same kind. This must be stopped instantly. Because if someone can clone our sim, it can be used for wrong purposes.

[celestial musician]

I think this is over. The news appeared some days before and yet there are not major issue. People are still going with regular life. Also there is no threat message released widely.

[Patricia-USA]

Luckily I found zeenews.india site which gave more detailed information on what can happen if your sim is cloned. According to news you get a miss call from those above mentioned numbers. When you call back on the number the guy on the other side ask you to dial #09 or #90 from your phone. And when press that your sim is cloned. It is very risk if your information leaks on other hand. The news says that already there are lakhs of people who are affected by this. When your sim is cloned the same then can be used by them to make call or do other stuff. There are chances that other information from your phone can also be captured.

Until now there is no detailed how this scammers work and what they want, but if they are doing this, it is done by some expert who knows well about telecom networks. Also they need good tools to make such calls and gather data. This is not a single man job. It is not final that only the number that are mentioned will be used. There are other more combination. If you find anything suspicious report to your telecom provider for the same. Avoid keeping any confidential information in your phone.

[Fullorton]

I never thought that this would be so serious. I thought it is somekind of cheap tactics played buy someone to gather data. Mostly attackers do like this. They gather data and sell. But this looks bit different.