Gone in 6 missed calls: Mumbai businessman cheated of Rs 1.86cr in SIM swap fraud

A businessman based in Mahim was duped of Rs 1.86 crore on December 27-28 through SIM swapping, the latest con technique used to cheat mobile phone users, Mumbai Mirror reported.

The victim, V Shah, received six missed calls on his phone at 2 am, one of which showed the dialling code of the United Kingdom (+44). When he tried to call these numbers back in the morning, he found his SIM was deactivated. Upon enquiring, the mobile service provider informed Shah that his SIM card was blocked upon his own request. He smelt trouble as he had made no such request.

When he visited his bank branch, he learnt that Rs 1.86 crore was siphoned out of his company's account. The money was reportedly transferred to 14 accounts through 28 transactions across the country. Upon trying, the bank was able to retrieve Rs 20 lakh of the total sum, but the rest was gone.

The SIM replacement request was filed with the company at 11.15 pm on December 27 and the missed calls came at 2 am on December 28.

"My company's bank account is linked to my mobile phone, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that the cheats will empty my account with such ease," Shah told Mirror.

An FIR was filed in the BKC Cyber Crime Police Station. "We suspect the scamsters had access to Shah's unique SIM number and had initiated a SIM swap. To ensure he doesn't suspect anything, they called him late in the night when his phone was on silent mode," a police officer told the paper.

The unique SIM number was obtained by the conmen through hacking, as Shah is sure he didn't share this number with anyone, neither did anyone call him asking for that information.

"Even when you open a fake version of your bank website, your details are automatically compromised. Your data is accessed by scamsters every time you access unsecured web connections. We suspect Shah may have accessed one such email or app," the officer added.

A similar case happened in Ghatkopar, where a firm lost Rs 50 lakh after scamsters swapped the SIM card of the firm's accountant.