Days in the Life of a Mobile Diva

SIM Swapping - Is It Really Fraud or Just The Wrong Term?

A few weeks ago I came across a Tweet from the FCC discussing how sim-swapping is fraudulent behavior.

SIM swapping is when someone hijacks your mobile number to gain access to your texts and calls for identity theft scams. If you have a sudden loss of service, contact your phone company and bank immediately. For more info, visit: https://t.co/QaL4moF95S #ProtectingConsumers

— The FCC (@FCC) August 26, 2021

It kind of baffled me because years ago, SIM Swapping was just that.... the swapping of sim cards from and to a device for the sole purpose of being able to use said device.  Prior to the BYOD or "Bring Your Own Device" era which I'm so glad that finally came to fruition, the act of sim-swapping was done in order to either use more than one device and still keep your mobile phone provider.  Travelers also engaged in SIM swapping in order to use the provider of the country that they are visiting, as long as their device was compatible.   This was the best way to not incur roaming charges.  As bloggers, we always had more than just one device being used at a time.  In order to test them with our providers we had to switch the sim card out and put it into the device we were going to use.  That was only done with GSM devices, since CDMA and TDMA devices were already programmed for their respective networks.

What I'm not understanding is how did the term go from a positive to a negative?  While I'm fully away of the seriousness of fraud, I don't fully agree with the FCC's definition nor meaning.  According to the FCC website, SIM-Swapping is explained as:

"Another way to perpetrate this scam is to physically steal the victim’s SIM card, a removable device in some mobile phones that carries a unique ID and stores the consumer’s personal data. The scammer can then use the stolen SIM card in their own mobile device.

In either case, the scammer can gain control over the victim's private texts and calls, and may then try to reset credentials for the victim's financial data and social media accounts.  If successful, the scammer can drain the victim’s bank accounts and sell or ransom their social media data."

Back in the day we swapped sim cards for the very purposes that I've explained.  But reading the information on the website still leaves me a bit baffled.  

• Firstly, according to the above, if one physically removes the victim's SIM card what are they replacing it with?  In order for it to be a "swap" another SIM card would be needed to replace the one removed, no?  
• Secondly, a SIM card is NOT a removable device.  A SIM card or Subscriber Identification Module card is a memory chip that assists in connecting you to your providers network.  It does also contain information about you as a customer, but you can control some of the information that is stored on your SIM card.  Depending on the device you have there are ways to select what is stored on the card and what is stored on the phone.  
• Lastly, the scammer can only use the stolen SIM card IF the victim has not put a SIM lock on it.  Because we always swapped SIM's for good reasons, we almost never saved or stored information such as Contacts/Address Books to our SIM's. Instead we stored them to the devices because before the cloud we stored all content to our computers.  I guess that became just the normal practice for me.  

Again, not to deflect from the severity of fraud in general I just think that maybe a better terminology should be used.  But like everything else... that's just my opinion.

Guess Who's Back?

After many many many years of missing in the blogosphere I was recently asked to be a guest on the Nokia Chronicles podcast!  The hosts, Adrian Hughes and Justin Cohen helped me relive a time in my life that I sometimes missed and often thought about.  It was great to revisit that time period and discuss all the amazing things that went on in the world of Nokia back then.  It was such an honor to even be remembered, so I'm dedicating this post to Nokia Chronicles!!

The podcast is available via Spotify and Apple Podcast.... give a listen and tell me what you think. Don't forget to subscribe to Nokia Chronicles!! <3 

 

Nokia Lumia 925 to have a larger screen

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia is believed to have initially planned for a bigger display in its new thin and lightweight Nokia Lumia 925, according to a recent report.

This has come to light in an interview with Niilo Alfthan, Senior Design Manager for Smartphones at Nokia.

ZDNET quoted him in an article, saying -

"Not all of the technologies that the designers want to include will eventually make it into a device, however."

"In the 925's case, a bigger display was on the drawing board but was pulled after it was found to be monkeying with the all-important antenna."

"We were trying an idea where we were trying to fit a bigger display and in that point in time"

"we were thinking let's make a bigger display... then we realised it did not help because of the antenna — there was interference,"

The larger display size wasn't given, but it would have been beyond that of the 4.5-inch AMOLED screen, found in the shipping model.

Jonne Harju, another Senior Design Manager for Windows Phones at Nokia, was also present and he added:

"We are always, always stretching the limits,"

"We know sometimes it's very, very tight for a technology to be mature enough in the timeframe [for it to be included in a device]"

"but we think 'let's try to do it', because then if you start something it can be moved to the next device — at least we've started something."

"If you don't start some new innovation, you don't necessarily get the result later on."

That well know Twitter tipster @evleaks has now mentioned an unknown codename of yet-to-be-seen Nokia mobile phone, Nokia Rivendale.

Perhaps the larger screen Nokia is still on the cards, with Riverdale; stay tuned for more.

Via: WMPoweruser

Nokia Lumia 520 FM radio to be enabled; network testing taking place mid-May.

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia is thought to be turning on the FM radio feature, in its new low-end Nokia Lumia 520 Windows Phone 8 device.

This comes care of the tech news website My New Machine, from a submission from one of it readers.

That person has contacted Nokia, through its website's live chat feature - entitled Nokia Care Chat.

They asked the Nokia representative about the FM tuner built into the Lumia 520, where the response was -

"In Windows 8 you cannot use the FM facility"

Followed by:

“But in future you may use in the Nokia Lumia 520"

Microsoft’s rumoured General Distribution Release (GDR2) update is supposedly going to enable this aspect within Windows Phone 8 - as we reported here.

This is along with double-tapping the screen to awake from standby, with Nokia improvements such as flipping the mobile to silence a ringing phone.

WMPoweruser has reported that carriers will begin testing out this update during this month, news of which was spotted in an Australian network's own forum.

Via: PhoneArena

Nokia updates Symbian mobile phones

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has rolled out an update to its 2011 and 2012 Symbian handsets, bringing in a raft of all-new features.

These Nokia phones include the likes of the 808 PureView, with its 41-megapixel camera, which was the last ever Symbian device from the company.

This update is also for other Belle Feature Pack 1 and FP2 mobiles, over the past few years. The over-the-air software fix offers up new widgets to the OS, one of which was available before – but only in beta form. The latter is known as Webview.

That provides a window on a home screen, showing any live website of your choosing. Multiple versions of this can also be added, across many home screens. There is also a mirror add-on, which does exactly what it says on the tin - provides a mirror to stare into.

That utilises the front camera of the phone, and offers up a picture taking function, if so desired. Another addition is a toggle flashlight, which enables the LED flash on the rear of the handset to be used as a torch. The other new widgets are a stopwatch and contacts communication - for one-touch messaging.

Via: All About Symbian

Nokia: Instagram is on the way

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has confirmed the popular photo-sharing app is coming to Windows Phone 8, according to a recent report.

Nokia has done this by posting a message to Facebook, replying to a customer’s enquiry if Instagram is coming to the Windows Phone 8-powered Nokia Lumia 920.

The response from the Swedish Nokia Facebook page was “Instagram is on the way but can't give an exact date right now".

This has been covered by Microsoft mobile OS news title Windows Phone Central, which has included a screenshot of the transaction.

That was a good idea it appears, as Nokia has subsequently deleted the post - possibly indicating an error in leaking the unauthorised info.

Nokia Sweden has previously posted a similar confirmation to Twitter.

In March, it tweeted "@WilliamSparf Dock to instagram is under development, but you can still floja your friends' feeds with #instacam :)"

This isn’t the first time we have heard of Instagram coming to the Windows Phone 8 platform.

The Verge noted Microsoft was testing this very app on its WP8 OS, in March this year.

That was in an article about the Nokia #2InstaWithLove app, which applies a type of Polaroid filter to images and comes close to being an Instagram app.

Nokia Lumia 920, 820 and 620 Get Official Firmware Update

Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia has announced that it has released updated firmware for its recent Windows Phone 8 run Nokia Lumia range of mobile phones.

It has unveiled this through its own forums, in a post entitled "Update released for Nokia Lumia 920, 820 and 620".

This reads:  "We have released some new software updates for Nokia Lumia 920 and 820!"

"Version 1232.5957.1308.00xx will bring: improved automatic display brightness adjustment; fix for intermittent screen blanking during a call; further performance and stability improvements."

"Additionally, we have published new software update for Nokia Lumia 620 version 1030.6407.1308.00xx, with plenty of reasons for you to update"

This is noted to be improved touch screen functions, including corrections in multi-touch actions and better voice quality with Bluetooth headsets that support echo/noise suppression.

Also, there is enhanced camera performance with corrected exposure when a flash is used in bright light conditions, and  various improvements to system stability, performance, and usability.

Nokia has stated the updated will be gradually rolled out in the next coming weeks, with a notification appearing on a handset, when it is eligible.

People in the forum have already noted that it is being deployed, where an O2 customer with a Nokia Lumia 620 has received it.