Why do you think that
re-issuing sim card part is a joke and mission impossible? Such scam scheme was popular in Russia and such methods was widely used to steal money. Btw such method was used to steal gambling balances, but mostly it was used to get access to private conversations. You simply can not imagine how corrupted mobile operator employees are in Russia due to their low salaries.
Recently, I lost my phone near the river, or in the river... Among other things, we also took a boat ride, so I'm not sure when and where it fell out. Re-issuing a SIM card is only possible by going to the mobile operator's offices & requesting a new SIM, with ID or driving licence, or passport... document with picture. I just asked their support, and here is the answer:
It is necessary that the signatory of the contractual obligation personally request the replacement of the SIM card at the point of sale for a postpaid number, that is, the owner of the prepaid service number.
This is from your article:
The fraudster uses social engineering techniques to convince the telephone company to port the victim's phone number to the fraudster's SIM. This is done, for example, by impersonating the victim using personal details to appear authentic and claiming that they have lost their phone.
It's pretty hard to do it... and it's the funny part, it's mission impossible for many, many people. I am sure some intelligent fraudsters, spying agencies and pro-mobsters can do it. But let's be realistic... If we find ourselves in their crosshairs, it's unlikely we can do anything to protect ourselves.
Now how things are done IRL (I havent done it, but this is in short how process is described on forums) in Russia. There are many mobile operator small offices all around the city. There is a huge staff turnover and people try to stick to their place. Those front desk managers receive fixed low salary, and bonuses for extra activities (like issuing new sim card (that means new contract/new clients for company technically), selling accessories, subscribing for mobile services and etc). When a person comes with a copy of a passport and power of attorney document, and say that his clients authorized to do sim re-issue procedure, for a 500-1000 rubles, that unfair, hungry and poor front desk manager could close eyes that its only a copy of a passport, and re-issue a sim. Not saying that such scheme works with 100% probability, but that is how they act. Then its only left to insert sim card and start receiving victims sms with verification codes.
If you come to a small office that look like
this, do you think they would give a damn or be maximum cautions if you give them only a black-white copy of a passport and ask for a sim?