Sim-Swap Fraud

SIM-SWAP Fraud Cost 1 Lakh

A 28-year-old woman in GURUGRAM got cheated for 1 lakh rupees.

The hacker called the man saying he is executive calling from her telecom operator's office.

“I am using Airtel for the last 10 years. I received a call from a man, who identified himself as a customer care executive and asked me to reveal my Aadhaar number for the verification process. He then sent me an SMS which he asked me to forward to 121 (the customer care number),” Nidhi Sharma told to the police.

The man told to Nidhi Sharma that "The next movement when she dialed 121 her mobile number got deactivated for 24 hours by the time for verification."

Within 5 minutes of Sharma forwarding the SMS, her SIM got deactivated. “In the meantime, I noticed some alerts on my email id about some net-banking login attempts,” Sharma said.

She realized that she had been cheated and immediately called her bank’s customer care, asking them to block her account.

Next day, when she visited the bank, she was informed that Rs 1 lakh was withdrawn from her account in three transactions (Rs 50,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 25,000).

“The message that Sharma was asked to forward to 121 was for SIM swapping. Therefore, her number got deactivated,” said a cyber cell officer.