The incident was reported to the police on October 18 when the high court advocate revealed to them that she had lost lakhs of rupees from her account.
Information regarding the amount that was cheated has been withheld by the police. An officer stated that three missed calls from an unknown mobile number were received by the advocate. When she later called the individual back from a different number, she was informed that it was a call for a courier delivery.
“She had only shared her house address with the accused, thinking she would be receiving a package from a friend, and she even received it. Later, two messages from her banking services application about two withdrawals, without her knowledge, alarmed her. The advocate had not shared any banking details, OTP or password. When she approached us, we found money was debited several times without her consent,” the officer asserted, terming the case as ‘SIM Swap fraud’.
The woman had an "unusual" browser history for websites and portals that she did not visit, the investigation revealed. The officer added that phishing link SMS had been sent to the advocate, and that a suspicious message pertaining to a UPI registration was also discovered.
The officer also stated that the woman informed them that she was not dealing with UPI or any other website of that kind.
“The woman in her complaint has also said that she received a call (after the scam) from a man, who portrayed himself as an IFSO officer, seeking her bank statement. Luckily, she didn’t share any details with him,” the officer stated.
According to police, no suspects have been identified yet. A case has been filed with the cyber cell, and transactions are being examined.
This is the third or fourth instance of SIM swapping or phone hacking in Delhi, where the perpetrators typically take mobile phone numbers and use a mobile carrier to assign them to a new SIM card.
According to the police, the accused use their connections at mobile companies to obtain the targets' personal information, and they use other connections with mobile carriers to switch SIM cards.
Once in control of the SIM card, they are able to obtain passwords and OTPs that allow them to access their targets' bank accounts.