Free SIM cards can create a lot of problems for their owners. This is especially true for cards received in „gray” communication stores or from hands. Most often, they are not registered to a real subscriber, although this is required by law, but are registered to some individual entrepreneurs or unknown individuals, Pavel Myasoedov, director of the IT Reserve company, tells the Prime agency.
The number of such cards in circulation is decreasing, but not too fast, since any card sold increases the subscriber base and, as a result, the operator’s importance in the eyes of shareholders and customers, he adds.
“In an ideal picture of the world, free SIM-cards should immediately be issued to new owners, but in practice they go from hand to hand for years, and sometimes they never change ownership at all,” the expert notes.
“The number can be registered on many sites and used for a variety of purposes. Using such a card, you risk not only becoming the object of a large number of spam calls, but even becoming an accomplice of one or another fraud,” Myasoedov warns.
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When using such a number to register in different applications, there is a possibility of losing access to personal accounts. According to the expert, if something happens to the SIM card, it cannot be exchanged for a new one. In the event of the closure of a company or an individual entrepreneur, for which it could have been registered earlier, the current contract is automatically suspended, and communication is disconnected with it.
Moreover, as the specialist points out, the real owner of this electronic product has every legal reason to take his number at any time. Technically, this is extremely easy. Your new „shareware” SIM-card is blocked and re-issued, but you no longer have anything to do with it.
“At the same time, the old new owner begins to receive all your SMS, including access codes to bank clients and other financial applications, which already carries much more serious risks ,” the expert says.
There are also less serious, but also unpleasant consequences of owning free SIM cards. “Therefore, we must remember that free cheese is only found in a mousetrap. For safety and peace of mind, it is necessary to purchase and issue SIM cards properly only in specialized communication stores or official stores,” Myasoedov concluded.