SIM Swap and Phone Number Fraud Statistics (2026)

How often criminals take over phone numbers, what it costs and how regulators have responded, using FBI complaint data, UK fraud-database figures and Australian and US regulator actions.

By Siddharth ShankarUpdated October 12, 202627 statistics · 10 sourcesCite this page

Key takeaways

• US SIM swap complaints to the FBI have been flat to falling: 1,075 in 2023, 982 in 2024 and 971 in 2025, and reported losses fell from $48.8 million to $17.4 million (IC3).
• The average reported loss per complaint fell from about $45,394 in 2023 to about $17,885 in 2025 (our calculation). SIM swap remains a very small share of FBI complaints, about 0.1% in 2025.
• The UK trend runs the other way. Cifas recorded nearly 3,000 unauthorised SIM swaps in 2024 (+1,055%) and a further 38% rise in 2025.
• Phone accounts are an entry point to other accounts: 48% of UK account takeover cases in 2024 involved mobile phone accounts (Cifas).
• Regulators are acting on the carriers. The FCC adopted SIM-swap and port-out rules in November 2023, and ACMA penalized Telstra A$1,551,000 in 2024.

FBI complaints about SIM swapping

A SIM swap moves a victim’s phone number to a SIM card controlled by a criminal, who can then receive the one-time codes sent by text. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reports SIM swapping as its own category. It captures only what victims report to the FBI.

The decline is steady across both complaints and losses. The IC3 report does not say whether this reflects fewer attacks, stronger carrier checks or changes in how victims report, so we do not claim a cause. The category is also narrow: losses from account takeover that began with a SIM swap may be classified elsewhere, and the FBI figure covers US complaints only.

United Kingdom: Cifas data

Cifas does not state the base period for the 2024 percentage increases in the release we read. UK Finance says its origination split uses a subset of closed cases and “cannot be considered definitive”.

Regulator action on carriers

In the US, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules in November 2023 (FCC 23-95) requiring wireless carriers to use secure methods of authenticating customers before a SIM change or port-out, and to notify customers of such requests (FCC). In Australia, the Communications and Media Authority’s rules on high-risk customer transactions took effect on June 30, 2022.

The ACMA said in the Telstra case that it had no direct evidence anyone lost money because of the breaches, which is a different thing from saying nobody did. Our incident report on the Telstra penalty gives the case in full.

Real cases show how the crime works. See a London SIM swap case, a Massachusetts case and Project Disrupt in Toronto. For protection steps, see what to do if your phone number was in a breach.

Methodology and limitations

Every figure on this page comes from the organization that published it, such as a regulator, a government agency or the original report. We read the source page or document directly, and we record the period each figure covers. When a number could not be confirmed against a primary source, we left it out. Rows marked “Our calculation” are simple arithmetic on published figures, and the inputs are named in the same row.

• SIM swap counts are small, so year-to-year changes can be noisy, and categories differ: the FBI counts complaints, Cifas counts filings by member organizations.
• The FBI and Cifas figures measure different things and different countries and cannot be added.
• We did not find a primary-source SIM swap figure for Canada or Australia for 2025, so none is shown. The ACMA $28,000 average is from 2022, covers scams targeting telco customer interactions rather than SIM swaps alone, and the ACMA does not give a dataset for it.
• Currency symbols for Australian figures follow the ACMA releases, which use $. We label them A$.

Counts of reports, complaints and notifications measure what was reported or notified, not everything that happened. Currency symbols follow the source. Where an agency does not name its currency, we show the symbol the source uses (for example, C$ for Canada and A$ for Australia are our labels). Figures from different countries use different definitions and should not be added together. Spot an error? Tell us and include the source link; we correct verified errors and note the date at the top of the page.