#SIM cards

A SIM card only with your ID: what the new anti-fraud measure changes, and why an ageing district like Ungheni is a target

The Government has decided that prepaid SIM cards will be activated only on the basis of an identity document, to cut into the anonymity used by scammers. Telephone and online fraud has exploded — from 40 million lei in 2023 to over 272 million in 2025. For a district like Ungheni, with many elderly people left alone while their relatives are abroad, the measure touches a nerve: here a woman was tricked out of more than 436,000 lei, and the most exposed are precisely those over 66.