E-Paper
57-year-old duped of Rs 11 lakh in SIM swap case in Pune
According to the complainant, the caller told him that he was speaking from a cellular company.
PUNE A 57-year-old man was duped of Rs 11 lakh by a caller who tricked him into sending an SMS from his phone that gave access of the victim’s SIM card to the caller.
The incident occurred between May 25 and May 27 when the 57-year-old was at his residence in Camp.
According to police, once the caller had access to his SIM card, he used to get access to the victim’s bank account.
“There was Rs 2 lakh in his account and once the SIM swap was complete, the caller used his bank account details, which he must have already had, and got a personal loan sanctioned for Rs 9 lakh,” said sub-inspector (PSI) Kiran Auti, cyber police station.
According to the complainant, the caller told him that he was speaking from a cellular company.
When the complainant was falsely convinced that the man was a representative of the cellular company, the caller told him that his SIM card needed to be upgraded. In order to do so, the caller asked the complainant to send an SMS to 1234.
“He had not realised that the SIM stopped working until 2-3 days after. That is when he came to the police,” said Auti.
The complainant works in a private company, according to the police. The caller offered to upgrade the services from 3G to 4G.
“We have had 10 complaints in the past two months alone. We have written to the cellular company saying such frauds have been happening,” said Auti.
A case under Sections 419 (personation) and 420 (cheating) of Indian Penal Code along with Sections 66(c) and 66(d) of Information Technology Act is registered at cyber police station of Pune.
