The latest fraud in field of banking sector is SIM swap. Another SIM swap fraud scam continues to haunt citizens across India with another resident from Noida losing Rs 6.8 lakh from his State Bank of India bank account via UPI banking.
Victim in his complaint to the police has claimed that he doesn’t even own a smartphone. The total of Rs 6.8 was transferred from his SBI savings account through UPI app by hackers in the past two months. It was only when he recently visited an ATM to withdraw money that he uncovered the fraud. The SBI Sector 2 Noida branch informed him that a total of seven transactions were done in these two months and all of them were UPI transaction.
Cyber police was quick to term it as a classic mobile SIM swap fraud. Here is everything you need to know about this mobile banking scam.
If the victim did not have a smartphone, how did the scam happen?
It is mandatory that every bank account has registered mobile number. While the victim did not own a smartphone, he must have a feature phone or have registered some other mobile number with his SBI branch.
UPI is a hassle-free
payment network and it doesn’t require a smartphone
Of course, there are UPI apps which need smartphones but UPI in reality just needs a bank registered mobile number to function. Just type *99# on any mobile to access UPI profile. So, while the victim had a registered mobile number, it could be quite possible to misuse that mobile number to do UPI transaction.
If UPI works on feature phones, why did the victim not get
transaction SMSes?
This is where SIM swap comes into the picture. Read on to know more about it in details.
- SIM Swap fraud basically means creating a duplicate SIM card and blocking the original one
SIM Swap or simply SIM card exchange is basically registering a new SIM card with your phone number. Once it is done, your SIM card will become invalid and your phone will stop receiving signal. Now, once the miscreants have your phone number, they will get OTPs on their SIM card. With this they can initiate bank transfer and even opt to shop online after getting OTPs.
- It all starts with an unknown call claimed to be from Airtel, Vodafone or any other service provider
You will get a call from a person who will pose as an executive from Airtel or Vodafone or Jio or Idea. He or she will then tell you that it’s a routine call to improve call drop problem or signal reception on your phone. He/she can also promise to help you get more mobile data or increase mobile internet speeds or simply can ‘guide’ you migrate to a 4G SIM card.
- Entire conversation will be to get your 20-digit
SIM number
The scam caller will try all means to get your unique 20-digit SIM number. Every SIM card has this 20-digit number. Look for it at the back of your SIM card. The scamster will try to convince you share your 20-digit unique number to a phone number to get the desired service.
- You will be requested to press 1 or authenticate
the SIM Swap
After convincing you to send the unique SIM number, the scamster will tell you to press 1 or simply authenticate the SIM swap. The process over here is that the scamster after obtaining the unique SIM number will initiate the ‘Swap’ with your telecom operator officially. For example, if you have a Vodafone SIM, the scamster will use a new Vodafone SIM to officially process the exchange of SIM card. Now, Vodafone will send a confirmation SMS to your phone number and the scamster would want you press 1 to authenticate the SIM Swap. With this Vodafone will understand that you have officially initiated the SIM Swap but then the attacker will end up hijacking your phone number.
- Your mobile will stop receiving signal altogether
Once the swap is successful, your SIM card will stop working and you will not get any signal on your phone. On the other hand, the scamster’s new SIM card will get full signal with your mobile number.
- How can you lose money if your SIM is hijacked?
It is basically a two-step process. And sadly, SIM Swap is the part two of the fraud process. The scamster, in most cases, already has information about your banking ID and password. All they need is the OTP that you get on your registered mobile number to make financial transactions.
- How did hackers get your banking details beforehand?
This is mostly through phishing attacks. If you happen to open a fake version of your banking website then your details automatically gets compromised.
- They may ask Aadhaar number to verify your identity. Never-ever
share Aadhaar number over phone
Just imagine the possibilities of fraud if the scamsters have got access to your phone number as well as Aadhaar number. These days most services can be accessed using both these together and once your Aadhaar number and phone number is available, it can lead to serious identity theft.
- Do not switch off or mute your phone to ignore anonymous calls
In most cases, once the scamster has successfully imitated a SIM Swap, he or she will disturb you so that you get angry and switch off or silent your phone. This is crucial to buy time for scamsters. Usually, telecom operators take around four hours to activate a new SIM. So, the scamster will continuously call you and disturb you so that you either switch off phone or silent it during this 4-hour window. Now, when the Swap is complete you will not even get to know about it.
SIM Swap is a powerful tool and it totally depends with whom you are communicating. In legit SIM exchanges, you are connected to the servers of service providers like Airtel, Vodafone or Idea. These operators have designated official USSD codes for SIM Swap. But the problem arises when you do not directly do it yourself. If you happen to send the unique 20-digit SIM number to someone else then he might initiate the process of exchanging your SIM card. It is all about the unique 20-digit SIM card number. The swapping process simply registers your phone number with the new SIM card that is in the hands of the miscreants.
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