What’s worse than thieves hacking into your bank account? When they steal your phone number, too. Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein recently fell victim to a type of fraud known as port-out hijacking, also called SIM-swapping. It’s a less-common form of identity theft, but the data shows its on the rise. When your own phone access is lost to a criminal, the very steps you once took to protect your accounts, such as two-factor authentication, can be used against you. Hussein saw thousands disappear from her bank account in the scam. It took a lot of legwork to get the money and her pilfered phone number back.
