Last week, financial manager Anastasia Yatsenko shared on LinkedIn about a situation where her Kyivstar mobile operator number was hacked by cybercriminals, but according to the victim, it is practically impossible to fix the situation.
Last week, financial manager Anastasia Yatsenko shared on LinkedIn about a situation where her Kyivstar mobile operator number was hacked by cybercriminals, but according to the victim, it is practically impossible to fix the situation.
At the request of dev.ua, the mobile operator Kyivstar responded to a case of mobile number theft by cybercriminals.
The company reported that the best protection for a SIM card is to choose a contract service, or to identify the user by registering the phone number on the passport. This can be done in the telecom operator's branded stores.
Kyivstar also noted that criminals have learned to "luring" the necessary information, taking advantage of people's trust. And one of the
The most common type of fraud is social engineering, when fraudsters exploit consumers' trust, fraudulently obtain confidential information from them and gain access to personal data, and as a result, cause material damage.
— Do not post financial phone numbers in public access — for example, on websites or in correspondence.
— Don't tell anyone about your phone number usage history.
— Use strong passwords, including for your SIM card and personal electronic accounts.
— For banking transactions, it is better to have a separate phone number that is not published on business cards.
— Choose a contract form of service, or confirm with the operator that reissuing a SIM card is only possible upon providing a passport.
— Be careful with calls from unknown numbers. If you receive a call from an unknown number within a short period of time (a day or several days) and they hang up/say that they have dialed the wrong number, this is a reason to worry about protecting your phone number: inform the operator about the possible danger.
Regarding the fraud case itself, Kyivstar responded as follows:
"Without additional identification, we cannot comment on specific cases. At the same time, we are always ready to help our subscribers in resolving such situations in accordance with approved security procedures. To do this, we invited the user to contact their personal
message to clarify the details, but we have not received a response yet,” the response said.
Recall that the victim wrote in her post that she provided screenshots of calls, a bank statement, and when there were top-ups. She also dictated the code on the SIM card. According to the girl, Kyivstar responded that the information was not true.
The company also noted the time after which the number will cease to be serviced and become inactive:
"Prepaid numbers remain active for 365 days from the moment of the last activity. For the number to remain valid, it is enough to perform one of the activities . For contract numbers, the validity period is unlimited. However, the operator may suspend the provision of services if the subscriber does not use communication services on the number for more than 60 days."
Anastasia indicated in her post that she did not live in Ukraine, and therefore rarely used the mobile operator's SIM card.
