There have been increased criminal cases of SIM card swapping over the last three years. In a recent case, a 32-year-old man from Dahisar was robbed of ₹61,000 by a cyber-criminal who tricked the victim into changing his SIM card and later withdrawing money from his bank account using Unified Payment Interface (UPI).
Earlier this month, the victim received a phone call from a man posing as an executive from a network service provider used by the victim. He told the victim that his number will soon be blocked if he did not link his Aadhaar card with his mobile number. In order to prevent his number from being blocked, he followed the instructions given by the fraudster and texted him a code to 121.
The victim was told that his number would be switched off for a day. As the victim’s phone number was linked to two of his bank accounts, the fraudster changed the bank record of the mobile phone details to his own and later the UPI service to withdraw money from both of the bank accounts. About ₹42,000 was withdrawn from one account and ₹19,000, from the other.
After the victim found out that he had been cheated, he approached the MHB Colony Police on June 12 and lodged a complaint. He also gave a copy of the First Hand Report (FIR) to the bank.
The best preventive measure is to avoid any SMS response or providing an OTP for any phone verification. When in doubt, visit the phone network gallery personally. It is best to not give out any personal information on a phone call at all times.
Share
Tweet
