Fraud: IT service provider and software company, Switzerland 2022
Attackers automatically registered several hundred thousand times with an app using foreign telephone numbers.
- Incident · 12.2022 · Switzerland
- Evidence: confirmed by an authority
- Fraud
As of
What happened
Each time, the app sent a text message with a verification code to numbers with additional charges, which the provider had to pay. Part of these charges went to the attackers («SMS traffic pumping»).
- Affected
- Company (anonymous)
- Loss
- high SMS costs, no amount stated
- Business interruption
- unknown
- Ransom demanded / paid
- unknown / unknown
- Data affected
- unknown
- Bankruptcy
- no
- Entry point
- SMS registration of the app
What would cyber insurance have paid?
That depends on the terms. Whether those affected were insured: unknown.
-
Expensive calls, cryptojacking, misused computing power
Mostly no information 5 of 9 business products cover it fully, as an add-on or with limits.
Overview based on public policy terms, as of 06.11.2026. Only your policy and its general terms and conditions (GTC) are binding. No confirmation of cover.
What we can learn
SMS registrations need limits per country and time period, otherwise the telephone bill becomes the loss.
Sources
- Wochenrückblick Woche 50: Angriffe auf App-Anbieter über «SMS-Traffic Pumping» (opens in a new window) Bundesamt für Cybersicherheit BACS (bis 2023: NCSC) · 20.12.2022
«Die Angreifer haben sich automatisiert mehrere hunderttausend Mal mit ausländischen Telefonnummern registriert.»
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