Expert: Denny Adams - 6/9/2009

Question
My daughter lost her phone, so the next day she went into a T-Mobile store and purchased a new SIM card and had it installed into an old Nokia phone she still had.  The technician at the store installed it and deactivated her old SIM card and phone.  My next bill showed over $500 US dollars of international phone charges on her line which she never made.  After arguing with T-Mobile for over an hour, they admitted these calls were from her SIM card but not her Nokia phone.  They suggested she had removed her SIM card an put it into someone else's phone and used it to make the calls! But they said they would remove the charges as we have been long standing customers with no problems.  I had never heard of copying or cloning a SIM card until I researched this today.  T-Mobile did not mention it nor did they suggest we get a new SIM card for her phone.  Do you think that is what has happened in this situation? And if so it must have happened at the T-Mobile store, as her phone has not been out of her possession since the card was installed.

Answer
carrie, when the phone was lost, did you call into tmobile and shut it down? if not, anyone could have found the phone and made calls to wherever they wanted.  if you did call into tmobile and shut it down, then a clone may have happened but with the technology of tombile and att that uses sim cards, its very tough and near impossible for cloning.  that's more likely on verizon or other carriers.