Aadhaar card SIM link swap scam: This woman lost Rs 1 lakh; here is how

A Thane-based woman lost Rs 1 lakh in a SIM swap fraud case. A cyber fraudster posing as a telecom company executive called the victim and asked her to send her pin to customer care number of their telecom company to link phone number with Aadhaar card. Her SIM card was subsequently hacked and money was siphoned from the victim's bank account.

A Thane-based woman lost Rs 1 lakh in a SIM swap fraud case. Representational photo: Image source: DNA India

Beware! This could happen to you too! Although digitisation has made common man's life easy, it has also led to increasing number of cyber crimes wherein innocent people are being trapped. In one such recent incident, a Thane-based woman lost Rs 1 lakh in a SIM swap fraud case. A cyber fraudster posing as a telecom company executive called the victim and asked her to send her pin to customer care number of their telecom company to link phone number with Aadhaar card. Her SIM card was subsequently hacked and money was siphoned from the victim's bank account.

The victim, Vaibhavi Attal later approached Kasarvadavali police station in Thane, said a DNA report, adding that she filed a complainant, stating that she had received a call from a person who identified herself as an executive of a telecom company. The victim was told that her phone number has not been linked with Aadhaar, therefore, her number would be disconnected, and to avoid that she will have to send an 18-digit PIN to the customer care number.

Since the executive did not ask for bank or Aadhaar card details, Vaibhavi Attal sent her 18 digit PIN to the customer care number. She told DNA, "After I texted the PIN, my SIM card got disconnected. I was clueless. I then filed a complaint with the telecom company to activate my sim card. However, I got a shock of my life when I checked my bank balance; Rs 1 lakh money was siphoned off from my bank account."

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The police reportedly said that the victim's phone number was linked to her bank account and the fraudster used her mobile number to get access to the bank account. The PIN was actually a new SIM PIN the fraudster bought; when shared with customer care, it allows for SIM swap. This led to deactivation of the customer's SIM, and allowed him to get control of her phone number, the fraudster reportedly used the phone number to make transactions from the victim's bank account, using the OTPs sent for verification.

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