Your SIM card could risk your bitcoin.

[Swift_tr]

How can this be possible? This has never occurred to me that my SIM can be used to gain access to my bitcoin wallet. Reading this topic took my mind back to a decentralised wallet I used in the past that always requested OTP whenever I logged in. This is a really important information and should see it as such. Thinking deeper about this, I don't seem to remember any decentralised wallet that didn't require a phone number for SMS verification during your sign up process.

[PremiumcryptoHub]

The essence of two-factor authentication is to avoid scams of this nature. Any Bitcoin user who isn't using 2FA, in Nigeria or elsewhere, lacks wisdom. Using 2FA is common sense. We are not supposed to be told to bind phone numbers, email, and Google Authenticator before any transaction can be done on an exchange account.

In summary, before a scammer attempts to log in to an exchange, the owner is supposed to be notified through email. Most times facial verification is also required when trying to access an account from a different location and device.

Bitcoins and Cryptocurrencies can also be stolen through sim cards but I think the main solution to this problem is to use hardware wallets. If you add your phone number to a crypto-currency exchange, fraudsters may steal bitcoins through a SIM swap attack through a SIM card.

Basically the way hackers can take our holding bitcoins through this attack are, 1) number clone or transfer,2) OTP theft and 3) Two factor authentication bypass. Actually it seems to me solving this requires every investor to turn off SMS based 2FA and use hardware wallets to securely store bitcoin holdings.

[Tetu100]

If a scammer successfully swaps your phone number to another SIM card there is no way you will receive a notification from your exchange via your phone number if they attempt to access your account.

Swapping a phone number to another Sim card you say? Please can you throw more light on what you mean by that, because I'm not getting it. Or do you mean diverting calls or messages from a particular line to another? I don't know if this is what you actually mean.

So, the essence of swapping your phone number to another SIM card is to block your phone from receiving a message when your account is being accessed by another device that has never been used by you to login into your account.

Is not even right bidding you exchange notifications to our Sim card. However, having it on our Gmail account is way better and saver. Personally, my Sim card has no business or whatsoever to do with my exchange, everything is connected to my Gmail and its 2FA is well activated.

[Ronsbit]

I understand that sim cards can be cloned at any point in time if a criminal want's to carry out their activities on you based on the information they have gotten about you. They can do that and undo you so quickly if you have no sophisticated means of data protection online via you exchange account's.
Having two ways security verification and authentication could help save you from much trouble if they attempt cloning your number to steal from you.
Another mistake people make is this, giving their phones to people to hold, use make calls or other purposes unknown to them. Your phone is your personal property and should not be allowed access to anybody except it is not tied to any important information to you otherwise keep your phone to yourself alone.

[OsaiEmma]

while I was looking through some posts online I came across a post that says that “Your SIM card can become a bitcoin security risk (even if your wallet is safe)”. So out of curiosity I decided to do more research on it to learn more about it. It’s funny how we focus only on protecting our seed phrase, and not on how phone numbers can become the weakest link for scammers.

Many of us knows that, in this our country Nigeria sim swap fraud has been around for years, and the funny part is most of us think it only affects bank accounts mind you it can also affect those holding bitcoin in Nigeria.

However, it affects more of those people who store or keep their bitcoin investment in a centralized exchange. How does it happen? A a fraudster finds a way to transfer your own phone number to another SIM card and then request for a password reset from your exchange or email account while they receive OTPs from their end.

If your exchange account depends on SMS verification, that can become a serious problem.  So, in order to reduce the risk of losing your bitcoin through this scam method, use an authenticator app instead of SMS, and secure your email account with strong 2FA because many accounts can be recovered using email address.

Warning, be careful who you tell you are holding bitcoin, because sometimes the biggest security risk is not your wallet it’s people knowing you have something worth stealing.

There are so many process involved in sim swap nowadays. NIN and biometrics verification is one of them. A stranger cannot just go swap your sim with unlinked details, so this type of problem is not really much of a problem.

Most CEXs don't just rely on phone number verification, they also need an email. Let's say they eventually get a hold of your email, unless you're logged out, you'll receive a notification on whatever changes are made to the account, and you can quickly report the activity.

But yes, I agree with you: having a 2FA and using an authenticator app for CEX verification provides a much better security structure than just a phone number and email.

[Don Saga]

Warning, be careful who you tell you are holding bitcoin, because sometimes the biggest security risk is not your wallet it’s people knowing you have something worth stealing.

This is the mistake that many people are making, some holders feel having bitcoin is something to brag about, not knowing that it's only exposing them to potential risk. There are multiple stories of people who were killed because of their bitcoin, and some cases of people who lost their bitcoin to slightly similar situations like this too.

Even families and distant relatives should not be completely trusted, depending on the nature of the relationship. But in every investment, security should always come first before creating unnecessary awareness.

[Somto9Light]

The problem with a lot of us in Nigeria is that we are so weak in security both in our investment and in our environment. We are not security conscious at all, if not when you lose your phone what you should do is retrieve the number immediately because if a scammer get hold of your sim card they can possibly seek a password reset on the centralized platforms that they can use a password reset to log in. Once your sim is compromised, a lot of things are likely to be exposed including your email address because they can also ask for a password reset too. Other users have already suggested using 2FA to strengthen the security of accessing your sensitive apps and sites of your crypto holdings or banking apps.

That's truth Nigerians don't really bother much about improving the security aspect of the information, rather we believe what will happen will happen, so taking to heart or worry about what will happen to the information we need to protect doesn't matter.
The level of exposure matters more to how much importance we attach to be able to secure our informations, I think due to the introduction of NIN thos makes people more deciplined because there is limit to the number of sims they can use, so this gives everyone the consciousness of how and what we do with the number to remain securedly safed from treats.

It is a very wrong mentality for anyone to say that "what will happen will happen". Some things can be avoided if people are more careful. The rate of scamming is on the increase therefore everyone really needs proactive measures to protect what they own because if we continue living with "i don't care" attitude, many things will go wrong. It is a different thing if someone has applied every safety protocols and still fall victim to scam than to be reluctant. Another way of securing the SIM card is to enable security pin such that even if you lost your phone, nobody can get access to your SIM card but most Nigerians prefers locking their phone with a password instead of locking the SIM. As a matter of fact, a SIM is even more important than a phone. During the early invention of mobile phones, SIM card was more costlier than a phone itself.

[B-BossMan]

while I was looking through some posts online I came across a post that says that “Your SIM card can become a bitcoin security risk (even if your wallet is safe)”. So out of curiosity I decided to do more research on it to learn more about it. It’s funny how we focus only on protecting our seed phrase, and not on how phone numbers can become the weakest link for scammers.

Many of us knows that, in this our country Nigeria sim swap fraud has been around for years, and the funny part is most of us think it only affects bank accounts mind you it can also affect those holding bitcoin in Nigeria.

However, it affects more of those people who store or keep their bitcoin investment in a centralized exchange. How does it happen? A a fraudster finds a way to transfer your own phone number to another SIM card and then request for a password reset from your exchange or email account while they receive OTPs from their end.

If your exchange account depends on SMS verification, that can become a serious problem.  So, in order to reduce the risk of losing your bitcoin through this scam method, use an authenticator app instead of SMS, and secure your email account with strong 2FA because many accounts can be recovered using email address.

Warning, be careful who you tell you are holding bitcoin, because sometimes the biggest security risk is not your wallet it’s people knowing you have something worth stealing.

That why I always support the ideas that don't only advise people to secure only thier seed phrase alone, the security of bitcoin should be as protecting the whole things, you can actually be securing your wallet properly and small mistakes may make you look stupid. In this Nigeria when it comes to Sim card protection, we don't need to joke with it even in slightly time, many scammers have been using people's sim card to fraud people, once you know your Sim card Is even connected to your own personal email, don't joke with it or even connected with your amounts account, using different security is more advisable, you don't need to expose yourself to anyone about the bitcoin you are holding,because these scammers actually needs just a little information about your account and uses the opportunity to gain access.

[promise444c5]

Most CEXs don't just rely on phone number verification, they also need an email. Let's say they eventually get a hold of your email, unless you're logged out, you'll receive a notification on whatever changes are made to the account, and you can quickly report the activity.

Some CEX also allow user to register an account with just only their phone number.. that way, the only way to verify when user login from a new ip or device is sending an OTP to their phone number. So , users themselves can dig their graves themselves.

Exchanges will normally require email addresses at some point of verification even if you didn’t subscribe to use any..