AntiDark.Net

Ten people have been arrested and more than 100 charges were laid in connection with a wide-reaching SIM swap scam, Toronto police said Thursday.

Investigators said more than 1,500 cellular accounts throughout Canada were compromised, resulting in more than $1 million in combined losses to victims that included telecom companies, financial institutions and individuals.

Det. David Coffey from the Toronto police Financial Crimes Unit said the SIM swap scam targets a weakness in two-factor authentication to take over a victim’s cellphone account.

Criminals either impersonate the customer at a cellphone store or otherwise trick a mobile carrier into switching the victim’s phone number to another SIM card, Coffey said. Once they gain access to an account, they can receive emails and texts about password recovery or changes and use that to compromise the victim’s bank accounts or social media profiles.