How the number gets taken
In a SIM swap, someone persuades or bribes a carrier employee, or uses stolen personal details, to move your phone number to a SIM card or device they control. A related scheme ports the number to a different carrier. Once the number is theirs, verification codes sent by text or call go to them, which lets them reset passwords on email, banking, and cryptocurrency accounts. People with visible wealth, crypto holdings, or valuable social media handles are frequent targets, but anyone can be affected. Carriers are subject to federal rules on protecting customer account information, and many now offer port-out and SIM change locks.
The first hours
Contact your carrier from another phone and ask it to restore your number, lock the account, and add a PIN or a port freeze. Then secure your email, because it is usually the key to everything else, and move accounts to app-based or hardware authentication where possible. Report unauthorized bank transfers to each bank as soon as you can; for transfers someone else made from your account, the timing of your report can affect how much protection you have. Cryptocurrency exchanges have their own reporting channels and may be able to freeze funds that have not left the platform. Keep screenshots, carrier notices, password-change emails, and transaction records, and file reports with the FBI's internet crime portal and local police.
Claims against the carrier and others
Claims after SIM swap fraud may be directed at the carrier, a financial institution, an exchange, or the people who carried out the swap if they can be identified. Wireless contracts frequently require arbitration and limit liability, so the agreement shapes where and how a claim can be brought. The carrier's records of the swap request, including how the requester was verified and which store or employee handled it, are often central and may need to be requested promptly before they are lost. Reviewing the attack timeline comes first, along with the losses on each account and what each provider has said in response. We then discuss which claims are realistic and which records to demand first.
