Can you imagine someone stealing money from your bank account, just by giving missed calls on a phone number? Scary Right? Recently a businessman from Mumbai lost Rs 1.87 Crore after he got 6 missed calls on his mobile number.
Today, fraudsters have become very intelligent and are coming up with new tricks each day, to make quick money. In this case, the technique used by fraudsters to steal Rs 1.87 Crore from the victim's bank account was SIM Swapping.
On December 28th, a businessman from Mumbai received six missed calls from unknown numbers at 2 AM. One of those numbers showed the dialing code of the United Kingdon (+44). When he tried calling back, he got to know that his SIM card was deactivated. After he found his SIM card had been deactivated, he contacted the mobile service provider. The service provider informed that his SIM card was blocked at his own request. He was shocked because he had never requested that his SIM card be blocked.
As his SIM card was blocked without consent, he felt something was cooking. So he contacted his bank branch and he was even more shocked to know that Rs 1.86 Crore was debited from his company bank account. The amount was transferred to 14 accounts via 28 transactions. The bank was able to recover only Rs 20 Lakhs. The remaining amount was withdrawn and bank accounts were closed. There was no trace of the fraudsters.
The SIM replacement request was filed with the mobile service provider at 11.15 PM on December 27th and the missed calls appeared at 2 AM on December 28th. The Company bank account was linked to the victim's mobile number.
See Also: What Is SIM Swap Fraud?
To gain access to the businessman's bank account and steal money, the fraudsters used SIM Swap Fraud. According to the cybercrime inspector, fraudsters had somehow obtained the SIM number of the victim, which is printed on the backside of the SIM. The fraudsters might have given a missed call late at night when the mobile was on silent mode, to ensure that the businessman did not have any suspicions.
Using that SIM number, fraudsters created a duplicate SIM card and deactivated his original SIM. After deactivating the original SIM it was very easy for fraudsters to gain access to victims bank account as OTP's would be sent to the duplicate SIM card.
The fraudster might have obtained a unique SIM number through hacking, because the victim was sure, he has not shared the SIM number with anyone and also nobody called him seeking this information.
According to the officers, the SIM card number and banking details of users would be compromised, if they access fraud apps or a fake version of the bank website. In this case, the victim might have used these apps or websites.
See Also: How To Save Yourself From SIM Swap Fraud?
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