Police have managed to freeze an amount of Rs 4.65 crore out of the Rs 7.5 crore lost in a SIM swap cyber fraud by the owner of a Mumbai-based private company, officials said. SIM swap fraud is a form of identity theft in which scammers trick the network provider into linking their target's mobile phone number to the SIM card they hold and accessing the OTP sent by the bank to the real person.
This is a form of account takeover, where cyber criminals gain access to the victim's phone number. This allows them to take control of the victim's mobile identity, making unauthorized access to personal online accounts linked to the number possible.
Officials said on Tuesday that cyber fraudsters defrauded the owner of a private firm of Rs 7.5 crore in suburban Kandivali on Monday. An official said the fraudsters accessed the company's bank account with the help of SIM swipe and made several unauthorized transactions. After this, within a few minutes the money was transferred to various bank accounts. Upon realizing the fraud, the company owner called 1930 cyber helpline and informed about the fraud.
He said the victim also sent an email giving information about the unauthorized transaction. Cyber Crime Branch officials immediately contacted the nodal officer of the concerned bank and also lodged a complaint on NCCRP (National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal). The cyber police team managed to freeze Rs 4.65 crore of the total amount lost by the victim within four hours of the fraud. However, most of the remaining amount was siphoned off by fraudsters.
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