Cyber ALERT: In One Of The Biggest Fraud in Delhi, Man Loses ₹50 Lakh. No OTP Asked, Just Missed Calls

Rs 50 Lakh Siphoned From Bank Account of Delhi Man Without OTP: Though a probe is underway, preliminary investigations suggested that the masterminds of this fraud might be based in the Jamtara area of Jharkhand. Read detailed report.

 New Delhi: Jamtara—the tribal district of Jharkhand where the social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar worked for 18 years to educate the tribal girls, is now earning a new name for being a notorious hub of cybercrime. This time, a group has allegedly managed to dupe the director of a security services firm of Rs 50 lakh via a fraudulent transfer from his bank account. If reports are to be believed, the cybercrooks made the transaction without asking for a one-time password (OTP). They fraudulently withdrew Rs 50 lakh by repeatedly giving him missed calls on his mobile phone.

Preliminary investigations suggested that the masterminds of this fraud might be based in the Jamtara area of Jharkhand. Reports suggest that the recipients could be just the account holders who may have given their accounts on rent to the crooks.

The BIG TRAP: What Had Happened? 

• The incident took place on October 10.
• Director of a security services firm received missed calls between 7 PM-8:44 PM.
• He responded to some calls and ignored  others.
• He checked his phone to check messages of RTGS transactions worthy of nearly Rs 50 lakh.
• Target find multiple text messages from the bank informing about transactions.
• A number of RTGS transactions worth over Rs 50 lakh carried out by crooks from current account of man’s company, reported Times of India.

Probe Underway: What Cops Suspect? 

• Police suspect a ‘SIM swap’ may have been carried out by the crooks.
• They may have initiated RTGS transfer and enabled OTP over the phone.
• They have have overheard the OTP being mentioned via IVR through a parallel call.

What is SIM Swap/SIM Cloning?

• Fraudsters gain access to the customer’s Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card or may obtain a duplicate SIM card (including electronic-SIM) for the registered mobile number connected to the customer’s bank account.
• Fraudsters use the OTP received on such duplicate SIM to carry out unauthorised transactions.
• Fraudsters generally collect the personal / identity details from the customer by posing as a telephone / mobile network staff and request the customer details in the name of offers such as – to provide free upgrade of SIM card from 3G to 4G or to provide additional benefits on the SIM card.

Precautions

• Never share identity credentials pertaining to your SIM card.
• Be watchful regarding mobile network access in your phone.
• If there is no mobile network in your phone for a considerable amount of time in a regular environment, immediately contact the mobile operator to ensure that no duplicate SIM is being / has been issued for your mobile number.

Cyber Crime From Jamtara

Despite the glorious history of Jamtara-Karmatand, these days people know this place more because of the popular web series ‘Jamtara’ released in 2020 which was based on cyber crimes on a large scale here.

In 2018, to control the cyber crime from Jamtara, a cyber police station was set up. Since then, more than 250 cyber criminals have been arrested, but despite this cyber fraud has not ended here. The main reason is that after being released on bail, the criminals again start operating this business.

In the last six to seven years, the police from every state of the country has reached Jamtara in search of cyber criminals and for investigation of cyber crime cases.