Security for phones against theft and other kinds of abuse has become a problem. Even though smartphones have made our lives easier, letting them fall into the wrong hands can be dangerous in some situations. With all these worries, it’s more important to keep scammers from taking advantage of us when feeling down.
We can protect the information on our smartphones with codes, patterns, biometrics, and other security methods, but what about our SIM cards? Even if your phone has the best security features, someone could still take your SIM card, which has your phone number, NIN, BVN, security data, payment information, and other bits of information, put it in their device, and use it.
Read also: Google Sets To Switch from Sim Card to eSim with Android 13
Tools for preventing scam
With the SIM lock tool, scammers won’t be able to use your SIM. A SIM lock is a function that comes with many phones and lets phone service providers limit how the phone can be used. A SIM lock ensures that a cell phone can only be used with a specific network or provider. This means a network-locked phone will only work with SIM cards from the same network. Want to know more about what the SIM lock tool can do for you? Here are three things you should know about it:
Fraud Prevention: The SIM Lock tool is a great way to keep your phone from getting stolen or used fraudulently. When a SIM is locked to a specific carrier, it makes it harder for crooks to use or sell stolen SIMs on other phones. This looks out for the owner of the SIM card.
Customized and exclusive offers: The SIM lock feature may come with offers only available to customers of a particular service provider. This gives the buyer extra benefits and perks. It also lets service providers change the software to work with their network. This gives users a unique experience and access to value-added services that may not be available on SIMs that haven’t been opened.
Customer Support: Internet service companies make sure that the SIM lock feature usually comes with customer support so that you can get help if there are any problems with the SIM or the service and so that you can get reliable help when you need it.
Follow these steps if you are an MTN customer with an Android phone and want to start the service:
Open your phone’s Settings, scroll down to Security, click on Set up SIM Card Lock, click on the Lock SIM Card button, enter the MTN default SIM Card PIN, which is 00000, and tap “CHANGE SIM CARD PIN” to change the default pin to your 4-digit pin, confirm your 4-digit pin, and turn the phone off and on to see if the SIM PIN is activated.
MTN customers with iOS smartphones can turn on the feature by doing the following: Go to Settings, choose Mobile Data or Cellular, pick SIM PIN, turn on SIM PIN, enter 00000, which is the MTN default SIM Card PIN, and change your SIM PIN from the default to a 4-digit SIM PIN that only you know. Confirm your 4-digit unique PIN, then turn the phone off and on to see if your SIM PIN is working.
It’s important to remember that you will always be asked to enter your SIM PIN when you take your SIM out of a device and put it back in or when you turn on your device. The above steps will only work if you have never changed your SIM PIN. If you accidentally put in the wrong PIN and your SIM asks for the PUK, enter the right PUK if you have it or go to any MTN store near you.