Today the World is full of frauds and scams. Every day, fraudsters come up with unique techniques to steal money from innocent people. Recently, a resident from Noida had lost Rs 6.8 Lakhs to fraudsters. In this case, fraudsters had used SIM swap fraud to steal money from the victim's bank account through UPI banking. Fraudsters had transferred Rs 6.8 Lakhs from the victims SBI savings bank account through the UPI app for the past 2 months. It was said that fraudsters had made seven transactions in 2 months.
The interesting part was the victim who lost Rs 6.8 Lakhs through UPI banking, didn’t have a smartphone. Also, he was not even aware that six lakhs had been transferred from his account until he went to the ATM to withdraw cash.
You must be wondering how Rs 6.8 Lakhs was transferred from the victim's bank account through UPI banking, if he did not have a smartphone. The fact is UPI just needs a bank registered mobile number to function. You can access the UPI profile by just typing *99# on any mobile. As per rules, the victim had registered his mobile number with the SBI branch. As he does not have a smartphone, he must have been using a feature phone. Fraudsters had misused his registered mobile number with the bank to do UPI transactions.
Even though fraudsters had made seven transactions using the victim's bank account, he didn’t receive a single bank alert message to the registered mobile. Here comes the SIM swap fraud.
See Also: Failed Digital Transaction? File Your Complaints With Ombudsman
Under SIM Swap fraud, your personal information will be collected by a fraudster through various methods like phishing, vishing, smishing and much more. Once all necessary information is collected, the fraudster will contact the mobile operator with your identity proof and say that your original SIM has been lost. As he says that the original SIM is lost, he will be asked to apply for a duplicate SIM card. Once the new SIM card is issued, your original SIM card will be deactivated by mobile operator.
The next step is the fraudster will generate OTP on his own phone using the duplicate SIM card. In most of the cases, fraudsters will have all your information including bank details other than the OTP. Now since your original SIM is deactivated, he will generate the OTP on his phone and undertake fraudulent transactions.
Once the fraudster gets access to your phone number, he can download the UPI app and register the bank account to transfer money illegally.
See Also: How to File a Consumer Complaint Online?
1. In case mobile goes out of service, contact your mobile operator as soon as possible.
2. Along with registering for mobile alerts, you must also register for email alerts from your bank for all transactions.
3. Go through your bank account and credit card statements regularly. If you find any unauthorized transactions, report them to your bank immediately.
4. Never share your personal banking details like card number, CVV, expiry date and passwords with anyone.
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