Free SIM cards: what’s the catch?

A very common sight on the streets of major cities in America, and especially in both capitals, when at the exit at the subway, at the stations or on the squares people dressed in the colors of famous operators, hand out SIM cards for free to all comers. And willing subscribers, indeed, are found! The benefit is obvious: no need to go to a mobile phone shop and spend time and money on a SIM card – take a free SIM card, put it in your bag, and then connect it and use it. What is a SIM-card, taken out of hand on the street, without a contract with the operator, can really take a user? The Roskatchet Center for Digital Expertise lists three dangers that threaten the “lucky owner” of an “anonymous” SIM card.

Losing a card at any time

According to American law, the SIM card you use must be registered to a specific person with a passport and full name. It can not be registered to anyone at all. If it’s not you, then who is? Another subscriber, a randomly selected person from a leaked database of personal data, the card dispenser himself, or maybe just a fictitious person with non-existent data?

Who is this person who gives out?

Of course, there is no guarantee that the person giving out such SIMs is really an employee of one of mobile operators – he can pursue any interests.

Whose card?

In any case, according to the rules of the operators, the person in whose name the number is registered, i.e. the one who can prove it, for example, by presenting a notarized power of attorney. If the SIM card is not registered to you, you can lose your number at any time without the possibility of recovery, which is already unpleasant.

But your SIM can be restored by that mysterious card owner. And such a prospect already carries additional dangers for the realization of which such “elephant handouts” are often arranged .

Loss of money

If you top up your SIM card balance, for example, by a thousand Dollars, and the number is taken away through blocking and restoring, then, of course, you will not be able to get back the money spent. Moreover, the technical support will not even talk to you if you do not own the number. Make it look like you voluntarily funded another person’s account which is probably what you were counting on .

Losing data and accounts

If you have tied social networking accounts to your phone number, or, much worse, a mobile bank – after the real owner of the number, waiting for a pause, took it back – you can say goodbye to the money, and all the tied services and social networks. Never connect your accounts to sim cards, which are not in your name, and especially mobile banks!

Money was crying

The scammer gets full control of the accounts tied to the number and the mobile banks by restoring the number to an over-issued SIM card. Two-factor authentication passwords from sms is the main method for both confirming a password or transaction and recovering a password. A fraudster can easily restore the password, log in to your online bank, transfer the money to himself and confirm the operation, all with the number taken back. Your correspondence in social networks and mail, if it is tied to a “gray number” will also become the property of an attacker, and perhaps – a reason for further blackmail from him.

“Of course, all of these risks do not necessarily have to materialize in life. However, it is absolutely certain that you should not trust anonymous SIM cards. They may work fine for registration on message boards or for a one-time use, but in no case should you associate such a number with accounts that contain your payment and personal information,” concluded Ilya Loevsky, deputy head of Roskatchestvo.