CRYPTO GUIDANCE INC.

Kansas City, MO

What Is a SIM Swap?

A SIM swap is an attacker taking over your phone number by convincing or bribing a carrier to move it to their SIM card. Once they own the number, every SMS two-factor code and phone-based account reset flows to them. For crypto holders, the number is often the master key to the exchange account.

How It Actually Works

The attacker gathers your details from breaches and social media, then calls your carrier posing as you, or pays a corrupt store employee outright.
Your phone drops dead: no bars, no calls. Theirs lights up with your number.
They trigger password resets on email and exchanges, receive the SMS codes, and empty what they reach within the hour. High-balance holders are researched and targeted by name.

Risks and Common Mistakes

Using SMS as two-factor on anything financial. It authenticates your phone number, and your number is a customer-service conversation away from being someone else's.
Publicizing holdings with a findable identity attached. Targets are chosen.
Treating sudden signal loss casually. It is the alarm. Move fast: carrier, email, exchanges, in that order.

The Fix

Replace SMS 2FA with an authenticator app, or better, hardware security keys on email and every exchange.
Set a carrier port-out PIN and account lock so transfers require it.
Give your email account the strongest protection of all, since it resets everything else.
Best of all, keep long-term holdings in self-custody, where no phone number resets anything.

When It Matters

Anyone with exchange balances protected by SMS. This attack is why security people repeat that your crypto is only as safe as your phone plan, and it belongs in the same mental folder as phishing: attacks on the human layer, not the blockchain.