A man who works as director of a security services based in south Delhi reportedly lost Rs 50 lakh to cyber fraud. According to a report by TOI, the victim received repeated blank and missed calls on his cell phones between 7pm and 8.45pm a few days ago. While he ignored some of the calls, when he picked up the ring no one spoke from the other side. However, after some time, when the victim checked his mobile phone to see messages, he was shocked to see messages of Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) i.e real-time settlement of fund-transfers for nearly half a crore.
The case was filed and the initial probe suspects that this case might be based in Jharkhand's Jamtara. The reports also suggest the recipient who received all the fraudulent money in their account is someone who rented out their accounts to fraudsters for commission.
The Jamtara scam is generally linked with cyber frauds in which fraudsters based in Jamtara city ask victims to download screen-mirroring apps in order to steal bank account numbers, passwords, OTPs and so forth to transact money. In a recent case too, police are suspecting that the fraudster might have performed a "SIM swap." The blank or missed calls were made to start the RTGS transfer and activate the OTP. It is possible that the scammers got OTP mentioned in an adjacent call's IVR.
"In this fraud, scammers also contact people's mobile phone carriers and trick them into activating a SIM card. Once this happens, they take control over the phone," TOI quoted the statement of the police officer.
What is SIM swap fraud
SIM switch fraud happens when fraudsters use your phone number to access a victim's accounts by exploiting a flaw in two-factor authentication and verification. For SIM switching, fraudsters contact the SIM provider of your mobile phone and convince them to activate a SIM card that belongs to them. Once the fraud SIM is activated, the scammers have control over the victim's phone number and they can receive control calls or texts on
