SIM swap as a service: advertised prices, insider brokers and what a hijacked number unlocks
A SIM swap moves a mobile phone number onto a SIM card that someone else controls. The US Department of Justice describes the scheme plainly: attackers gain control of a victim's number, link it to a SIM they operate, and the victim's calls and text messages - including one-time passcodes - are routed to a device the victim never sees. What began as bespoke account-takeover work has matured into a listed service on underground forums, complete with per-operator price sheets, resellers and recruiters who place insiders inside mobile carriers.
What a hijacked number unlocks
A phone number is the reset key to nearly everything attached to it. Intercept SMS passcodes and an attacker can typically break into email inboxes, bank and exchange accounts, and any service that treats a message code as proof of identity. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 320 SIM-swap complaints between January 2018 and December 2020, with adjusted losses of roughly $12 million; in 2021 alone it received 1,611 complaints with adjusted losses above $68 million. The bureau's public service notice explicitly lists bribing carrier employees among the working methods, alongside phishing and malware. The ceiling is high. In January 2024, attackers used a hijacked number to take over the US Securities and Exchange Commission's account on X and post a fake bitcoin-ETF approval, according to threat-intelligence firm Intel 471. And the damage estimate Europol attached to a single hijacked number in its 2021 takedown - more than EUR 100,000 - helps explain why the underground market prices swaps in four figures.Advertised prices, per operator
According to Intel 471's April 2024 briefing, SIM-swapping services are advertised openly across underground forums and Telegram channels. One threat actor offered swaps on AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon accounts for $2,500 per number and claimed to work through an insider at an unnamed US company. Another seller, covering AT&T, O2, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon, focused on cryptocurrency targets and quoted fees starting at $5,000 per account. A third advertised US operators from $2,000. Pricing reportedly reflects the operator, the value of the target's accounts and, above all, whether an insider is already in place. These are sellers' claims, not verified capability - but the volume of offers and the repeat business around them suggest the trade is active.The insider market
The supply side is where SIM swapping stops being a consumer scam and starts looking like procurement. Reporting by Brian Krebs in 2018 described three recurring methods: bribing or blackmailing store employees, current or former staff abusing database access, and crooked employees tricking unwitting colleagues into performing the swap. A $400 payment tempts low-wage store staff, Krebs noted, and T-Mobile acknowledged three unauthorized-access incidents that year, one affecting around 2.5 million customers. A detective cited in the same report mentioned claims of 'specialized software' sold on dark-web markets giving backdoor access to a carrier database - a claim that was never substantiated."Duping or bribing telecom employees or directly abusing internal access at telecom operators" - how Europol described the methods of the ring behind the 2021 celebrity SIM-swap arrestsThe pattern reaches into carrier offices. Intel 471's briefing records a New Jersey telecom employee who pleaded guilty in March 2024 to unauthorized computer access after investigators said he was paid $5,000 in bitcoin to run SIM swaps on five victims in 2021, with a recruiter allegedly promising him a share of the profits. The same month, prosecutors charged a then-19-year-old Florida man alleged to have taken at least $800,000 in cryptocurrency through hijacked numbers, and charged a ring accused of using forged identity documents to carry out swaps inside carrier stores. US regulators now write the insider risk into rulemaking: the FCC's 2023 order on SIM-swap and port-out fraud refers, in so many words, to 'sympathetic, inattentive, or malicious customer service representatives.'
A $20 million number
The clearest cost accounting comes from a single defendant. Nicholas Truglia, then 25, pleaded guilty to taking part in a January 2018 SIM-swap scheme that drained one victim's cryptocurrency wallet of more than $20 million. In December 2022 the US Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York announced that he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, three years of supervised release, $983,010.72 in forfeiture and $20,379,007 in restitution. Technology investor Michael Terpin, whose number was allegedly hijacked in the same wave, pursued the parallel civil track: an arbitration panel reportedly awarded him $23.8 million against Truglia in 2019, according to the Wikipedia overview of SIM swap scams that compiles the court and arbitration records.What actually works as a defense
Since January 2024, US carriers covered by the FCC order have had to verify a customer's identity securely before transferring or porting a number, notify the customer before effectuating the change, and offer a free port-out and SIM-change lock. The rules are a floor, not a shield, and they postdate most of the cases above. The practical mitigations the FBI recommends are unchanged:- Set a port-out PIN or number-transfer lock with your carrier, and ask for eSIM protection where offered.
- Use an authenticator app, hardware security key or biometrics instead of SMS codes for critical accounts.
- Never share one-time passcodes or account PINs, and avoid publicizing cryptocurrency holdings.
- Keep a separate number for critical accounts and give it to no one.