Florida Woman Loses Phone Number in SIM Swap Scam, Faces $1,500 Unauthorized Charges

Patricia Escriva was babysitting one night in Florida when her phone suddenly lost service. Texts stopped, calls failed and alerts vanished. She had not lost her device. Someone had taken control of her phone number.

"I realized that I had nothing," Escriva said. "Either you get a text message, a WhatsApp message, an email or a phone call. I had nothing." She connected to Wi-Fi to investigate. Alerts then flooded in. "The first one was, you added a new device to your account," she said. "And then two seconds later, you just changed your password."

Financial notifications followed. "Let me tell you, my heart stopped," Escriva said. "I start getting emails like $1,500, $800." Scammers had seized her accounts and begun spending. They used money from her checking account to pay credit cards and keep using them.

Escriva's case involved a SIM swap scam, a form of identity theft targeting phone numbers. It works with physical SIM cards or eSIMs. Scammers collect personal data online, contact the mobile carrier and pose as the victim. They persuade the carrier to transfer the number to their device. The hackers then receive security codes sent by text.

Many accounts use text codes for login verification. With the number under their control, scammers reset passwords and access email, banks and payment apps. In Escriva's situation, the theft started right away. It took three days to recover her number after she reported the problem.

Warning signs include sudden loss of service, inability to send or receive calls or texts, alerts about new devices or password changes, and failure to receive verification codes. Escriva now tells others to act fast. "If you see you have nothing going on on your phone, make a phone call," she said. "If that phone call doesn't go through... you're being hacked."

She lost thousands of dollars, but her bank restored the funds. Victims should call their carrier from another phone to request a SIM lock or port-out freeze. They need to contact their bank to halt transactions, change passwords on email and financial accounts, and enable alerts for suspicious activity. They should also report to the carrier and local police.

To prevent attacks, users can ask carriers for a SIM lock or port-out PIN. They should switch key accounts to authenticator apps or security keys instead of text codes. Strong, unique passwords for each account help, along with notifications for logins, changes and transactions.