Hyderabad: Cybercriminals are now duping people in the name of eSIM activation. Four cases of eSIM swapping fraud have been registered in Cyberabad this month. Fraudsters made victims activate their eSIM and then siphoned off over Rs 21 lakh from their bank accounts after taking control over the eSIM.
On July 14, S Appalanaidu of Miyapur lodged a complaint with cybercrime sleuths of Cyberabad commissionerate alleging that on July 11, he received a message from ‘QP-TXTSMS’ saying, “Dear customer, your SIM card will be blocked in 24 hours. Please update your eKYC verification.”A
After the message, Appalanaidu received a phone call from the fraudster who posed as a customer care executive of the mobile network service provider firm. The caller sent an e-mail ID to the victim and asked the latter to forward the e-mail ID to customer care number. As the complainant forwarded the e-mail ID to customer care number, he received an acknowledgement of e-mail registration for the mobile number. After registering his e-mail ID with the victim’s mobile number, the accused made him forward e-SIM request to the service provider with the registered e-mail ID.
“After the e-SIM request was accepted by the service provider, the QR code for activation of the eSIM service went to the e-mail ID given by the fraudster. The accused also sent a Google Form asking the victim to fill his name and bank details. After receiving the bank details, the accused activated the eSIM in his or her handset by scanning the QR code and the SIM card of the complainant gets blocked,” cybercrime inspector K Srinivas said.
The fraudster then registered the e-SIM with digital wallets and linked it with Appalanaidu’s bank account to siphon off Rs 9.2 lakh from the victim’s 2 bank accounts in 21 transactions between July 11 and July 13. Similarly, three other victims - Kumar Kaushal Mishra of Gachibowli, Suresh Raman of Gachibowli and D Srinivas of Kondapur - were also duped by the fraudster. The victims lost Rs 5.9 lakh, Rs 3.7 lakh and Rs 1 lakh respectively.
On July 14, S Appalanaidu of Miyapur lodged a complaint with cybercrime sleuths of Cyberabad commissionerate alleging that on July 11, he received a message from ‘QP-TXTSMS’ saying, “Dear customer, your SIM card will be blocked in 24 hours. Please update your eKYC verification.”A
After the message, Appalanaidu received a phone call from the fraudster who posed as a customer care executive of the mobile network service provider firm. The caller sent an e-mail ID to the victim and asked the latter to forward the e-mail ID to customer care number. As the complainant forwarded the e-mail ID to customer care number, he received an acknowledgement of e-mail registration for the mobile number. After registering his e-mail ID with the victim’s mobile number, the accused made him forward e-SIM request to the service provider with the registered e-mail ID.
“After the e-SIM request was accepted by the service provider, the QR code for activation of the eSIM service went to the e-mail ID given by the fraudster. The accused also sent a Google Form asking the victim to fill his name and bank details. After receiving the bank details, the accused activated the eSIM in his or her handset by scanning the QR code and the SIM card of the complainant gets blocked,” cybercrime inspector K Srinivas said.
The fraudster then registered the e-SIM with digital wallets and linked it with Appalanaidu’s bank account to siphon off Rs 9.2 lakh from the victim’s 2 bank accounts in 21 transactions between July 11 and July 13. Similarly, three other victims - Kumar Kaushal Mishra of Gachibowli, Suresh Raman of Gachibowli and D Srinivas of Kondapur - were also duped by the fraudster. The victims lost Rs 5.9 lakh, Rs 3.7 lakh and Rs 1 lakh respectively.
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