Many people are not aware that fraudsters can wipe out money from their bank accounts using the SIM card. Yes, you heard it right? Your bank account can be emptied using your SIM card. Your SIM card can actually be a source of security vulnerabilities. Fraudsters can somehow deactivate your SIM card and steal all the credentials of your mobile number.
In this blog, we will discuss how a Bengaluru entrepreneur lost Rs 45 Lakhs in 30 Minutes after his Airtel SIM card was deactivated by fraudsters and internet banking credentials were hacked.
See Also: Person Cheated By SIM Swap Fraud
A person named Jagadeesh who runs a company called Creative Engineers which manufactures mineral-processing and slurry-pumping machinery at Hegganahalli was a victim to this fraud. A few days back, the victim noticed that his Airtel SIM card was not working. He contacted the customer support team of Airtel using another number and informed them on the issue. The customer care executive asked him to get the new SIM card for the same number. As his SIM card was a corporate one, an official letter was required to avail of a new SIM card.
His wife tried to log in to the companies bank account, but she was not able to log in as the username and password of the bank account had been changed. She believed that her husband might have changed the credentials and contacted him. But, she was shocked to know that he has not made any changes.
They contacted the bank and the bank informed them that Rs 45.7 Lakhs was transferred from their overdraft and current accounts at Canara Bank in five batches. All these transactions had taken place within 30 minutes.
After moving between two police stations, the couple finally filed a complaint at the Vijayanagara police station after more than 24 hours. According to the police, the fraudsters might have deactivated the victim's SIM card after hacking his email account to generate a replacement request and obtained the replacement SIM. They even hacked the firm’s internet banking credentials.
The victim said that "It’s shocking how Airtel issued a corporate SIM card without papers. It was issued without my knowledge and consent.”
Airtel has rejected the responsibility stating that the SIM card was issued only after they received an email from Jagadeesh. The company also said that it had not issued the SIM card illegally.
see Also: Check out the new cybercrime SIM swipe
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