Guwahati: A Mumbai businessman lost approximately Rs 40 lakh from his bank account after cybercriminals disabled the SIM card for his phone.
The replacement SIM card which had one-time passwords (OTPs) that the criminals could access was then provided by the mobile phone service provider.
The scammers carried out the transactions using the OTPs and other notifications they were able to collect.
The company reported the incident to the Mumbai North Region Cyber Police office on April 3.
The businessman complained that his cell service provider had just sent him an SMS regarding a SIM swap request late at night.
He responded to the message by denying making such a request.
He immediately got a text message telling him the request had been declined. The businessman noticed that there was no service in the morning and that he was unable to make or receive calls or texts, even on WhatsApp even though his SIM was linked to his bank account.
“As he had kept his phone on ‘call forward’ mode, he checked his other phone and he found that he had received two voice calls for OTPs to transfer money,” said a police officer.