There were more rental numbers in the MegaFon and MTS networks. Their use for fraud

MegaFon and MTS became leaders in the number of virtual mobile numbers sold at retail and wholesale or leased in 2023. This follows from the analyzed Data Sheets of the popular exchanges smshub.org and smsactivate.org.

On these exchanges you can rent a number to register on social networks or log into an already created profile.

As a result, on the lower exchanges there were 77 thousand MegaFon virtual numbers, another 35 thousand belong to Yota. MTS owns only 22 thousand numbers.

MegaFon accounts for 70% of virtual numbers, MTS – 14%, Tele2 – 8%, and Beeline – 3%.

A MegaFon representative told iPhones.ru that subscribers themselves provide their numbers to the exchange, despite the prohibition specified in the contract.

MegaFon enters into contracts directly with subscribers and does not interfere with the activities of any services. They provide their numbers to the subscribers themselves for these services. It is difficult for us to comment on the motives for such behavior. But in those cases that we identify, we take measures in accordance with the agreement for the provision of communication services. The agreement prohibits the use of the provided subscriber number for the organization of automated centers, gateways, for calls to the organization with the provision of authentication, authorization and confirmation of actions.

Megaphone

These numbers usually already have profiles on Avito, VKontakte and Odnoklassniki, as well as a WhatsApp account. In most cases, such numbers are used by attackers to increase views, comments, and for fraudulent purposes.

The numbers can be registered in the passport data of leaked bases or labor passengers. Services that allow you to bypass user identification on social networks gradually block processing and are sent to the Ministry of Digital Development. Roskomnadzor added that similar services will be blocked from September 1, 2024. [Ведомости]