Mumbai: Cyber fraudsters cheat bizman of Rs 17L using duplicate SIM

According to the Khar police, who are investigating the case, the fraudsters procured a duplicate SIM card of the businessman’s phone number and used it to conduct unauthorised online transactions.

Cyber fraudsters duped a 56-year-old businessman from Khar (West) of Rs 17.20 lakh.

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According to the Khar police, who are investigating the case, the fraudsters procured a duplicate SIM card of the businessman’s phone number and used it to conduct unauthorised online transactions.

The complainant, Dhaval Kumar (name changed), a businessman who exports chemicals, has an account with a nationalised bank. Kumar said he registered his mobile phone number with the bank using which he carries out his net-banking transactions.

In his complaint, Kumar said on May 28, his mobile phone service was suddenly discontinued. But he did not suspect anything suspicious and waited for the service to resume.

On the same day, the accountant at Kumar’s company informed him that he had received intimation that the company’s bank account had been blocked, the police said.

When Kumar went to the bank to inquire, he found his account was blocked as some wrong passwords had been entered. He was also informed the account balance was Rs1,482 after Rs17.20 lakh had been withdrawn from it.

The cellular service provider had told Kumar that on May 27, a man who identified himself as Ravi Kishan Yadav visited the store and submitted a letter on Kumar’s company’s letterhead and other relevant documents claiming he was Kumar’s employee. He told the executive that his owner wanted a duplicate SIM card, the police said.

“Using the phone number, the cyber fraudsters logged into Kumar’s net-banking account and made online transactions,” a police officer said. “We have registered a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act,” said senior inspector Dattatray Bhargude of the Khar police station.

Kumar told HT, “We checked the CCTV footage in which the suspect’s face is clearly seen. The police found the beneficiary accounts had been opened a few days before. They used forged documents to obtain a duplicate SIM.”