Noida man loses ₹15.5 lakh in sim swap fraud; police launch probe

The victim, Rajneesh Narang, was allegedly tricked into converting his physical SIM card into an eSIM by a caller posing as a telecom service representative

A 50-year-old software developer from Noida’s Sector 11 lost ₹15.50 lakh in a SIM swap scam carried out through six transactions between July 20 and 27, police said on Tuesday. A case has been registered at the Cybercrime Branch police station against an unidentified suspect.

The fraudster, having gained control of Narang’s mobile number, initiated six transactions totalling ₹15.50 lakh. Narang was alerted via email when someone attempted to add new payees to his Unified Payments Interface (UPI). (Representational image)

The victim, Rajneesh Narang, was allegedly tricked into converting his physical SIM card into an eSIM by a caller posing as a telecom service representative. According to the police, Narang received a call on July 18 from an unknown number, during which he was told that switching to an eSIM would improve network connectivity.

Police said the caller instructed Narang to complete further steps via email after the SIM was not activated even 24 hours later. “The caller informed me that I needed to do mail confirmation by sending SMS for activation, which we did, and after that I realised that it was a fraud call, as my mobile did not activate,” the FIR read.

Investigators found that Narang had unknowingly entered a 16-digit EID (Embedded Identity Document) code provided by the scammer into the official app of his telecom provider. “As Narang entered the 32-digit number on an official application while processing eSIM, his SIM card was swapped to the suspect’s device,”said Ranjeet Singh, station house officer, Cybercrime Branch.

To be sure, e-SIM swap scams are a type of mobile fraud where scammers persuade network providers to transfer a victim’s phone number to a device they control. Once the switch is done, they can intercept OTPs, access UPI accounts, and impersonate the victim online.

The fraudster, having gained control of Narang’s mobile number, initiated six transactions totalling ₹15.50 lakh. Narang was alerted via email when someone attempted to add new payees to his Unified Payments Interface (UPI). He then contacted the bank, disconnected the mobile number, and blocked the SIM—but not before the transactions were completed.

Police said the case was registered under sections of cheating and personation under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the IT Act. Further investigation is underway.