# Use carrier account locks and change alerts against SIM swaps, and check when the FCC’s new rules take effect > The FCC’s November 2023 SIM swap and port-out fraud order requires wireless carriers to authenticate customers before moving a number, notify them of SIM changes and port requests, and offer account locks. A 2024 bureau order tied compliance to a later Federal Register notice. - Canonical URL: https://update.dsesecurity.com/updates/fcc-sim-swap-port-out-fraud-rules-account-lock-notifications/ - Publisher: Detection Systems & Engineering (DSE Security) - Author: DSE Security Editorial Team - Published: 2026-10-18T21:01:04+00:00 - Modified: 2026-10-18T22:22:08+00:00 - Last reviewed by DSE: 2026-10-18 - Resource type: Briefing - DSE priority: Advisory - Topics: Cybersecurity, Microsoft 365 & Identity - Reading time: 2 minutes ## What you need to know The FCC’s November 2023 SIM swap and port-out fraud order requires wireless carriers to authenticate customers before moving a number, notify them of SIM changes and port requests, and offer account locks. A 2024 bureau order tied compliance to a later Federal Register notice. ## Potentially affected Organizations with company mobile phones, executives and administrators whose phone numbers receive SMS or voice verification codes, and anyone managing carrier business accounts. ## DSE recommendation DSE recommends turning on every available carrier account lock and port-out protection for company phone lines, and removing SMS codes from privileged accounts. ## Article The FCC’s November 2023 SIM swap and port-out fraud order requires wireless carriers to authenticate customers before moving a number, notify them of SIM changes and port requests, and offer account locks. A 2024 bureau order tied compliance to a later Federal Register notice. ## Source facts The FCC’s [November 15, 2023 announcement](https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-398483A1.txt) says new rules require wireless providers to adopt secure methods of authenticating a customer before redirecting a customer’s phone number to a new device or provider, and to immediately notify customers whenever a SIM change or port-out request is made on their accounts. It describes SIM swapping as a bad actor convincing the carrier to move the victim’s service to a phone the bad actor holds, and port-out fraud as opening an account at another carrier and transferring the victim’s number to it. A later Wireline Competition Bureau [order, DA 24-649](https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-24-649A1.pdf), summarizes the rules as also requiring processes for failed authentication attempts, employee training, and safeguards that keep customer-facing employees from accessing account data until customers are authenticated. Carriers must offer customers the option to lock their accounts to block SIM changes and number ports and give advance notice of available account protection mechanisms. That order denied an industry request to waive all of the rules until March 10, 2025, but waived compliance so that all of them become required together only after OMB completes its Paperwork Reduction Act review and the Commission publishes a compliance date in the Federal Register. ## Applicability Use this for any organization that relies on mobile numbers for staff contact or account verification. Whether and when each carrier must comply depends on the compliance-date notice described in the bureau order; check the FCC’s current docket before relying on a specific rule. ## DSE recommendation DSE recommends turning on every available carrier account lock and port-out protection for company phone lines, and removing SMS codes from privileged accounts. Set a strong carrier account PIN, route SIM-change and port-out alerts to the IT team as well as the user, and move administrators and finance staff to phishing-resistant sign-in so a hijacked number cannot reset their access. ## Verification Confirm lock and PIN settings on the carrier business account quarterly, test that a SIM-change alert reaches IT, and review identity provider settings to verify privileged accounts no longer accept SMS or voice codes. ## Official references [Federal Communications Commission — FCC Adopts Rules to Protect Consumers’ Cell Phone Accounts (November 15, 2023)](https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-398483A1.txt). [FCC Wireline Competition Bureau — Order DA 24-649 on the SIM Swap and Port-Out Fraud Order](https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-24-649A1.pdf). Reviewed October 18, 2026. ## Primary reference - Name: Federal Communications Commission — FCC Adopts Rules to Protect Consumers’ Cell Phone Accounts (November 15, 2023) - Authority: docs.fcc.gov - URL: https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-398483A1.txt - Source publication date: Not stated by the source ## Citation and use Preferred citation: “Use carrier account locks and change alerts against SIM swaps, and check when the FCC’s new rules take effect,” DSE Security, https://update.dsesecurity.com/updates/fcc-sim-swap-port-out-fraud-rules-account-lock-notifications/ Publishing principles: https://update.dsesecurity.com/updates/dse-updates-editorial-methodology/ Usage and citation policy: https://update.dsesecurity.com/usage/ Copyright © 2026 Detection Systems & Engineering. All rights reserved.