Police urge Nigerians to activate SIM lock, reveal criminals’ tactics

Nigerians have been advised by Police to activate locks on their Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards.

Public Relations Officer in Lagos, Benjamin Hundeyin gave the advice in a Twitter post after the arrest of a syndicate.

The spokesperson revealed that members of the syndicate pick phones and discard them after removing SIM cards.

With the stolen SIM cards, they use bank USSD to buy airtime as it usually does not require PIN.

Hundeyin said the criminals proceed to empty their victim’s account one way or the other after gaining access.

“The only SIM cards the syndicate never succeeded with were ones with SIM lock. Activate your SIM lock today,” he urged.

There’s a sharp increase in unauthorised transfers and bills payments causing banks to issue reminders to customers on how to safeguard their accounts.