Fraud Alert
Steel Trading Firm Loses Rs 7.42 Crore in Massive SIM Swap Cyber Fraud
Mumbai: In one of the largest cyber fraud cases this year, a steel trading firm suffered a Rs 7.42 crore loss after cybercriminals hacked the owner’s Airtel mobile number, accessed the company’s bank account, and siphoned off the money. The North Cyber Cell of Mumbai Police is conducting a thorough investigation to track the money trail.
The incident unfolded on December 22 when Vikas Gupta, owner of Srikrishna Steel, received an alarming SMS from Airtel stating, “Your SIM change request has been received. If you did not request this change, please SMS ‘NOSIM’ to 121 or call 121 immediately.” Suspecting foul play, Gupta immediately contacted an Airtel Gallery, only to discover that his SIM card had been hacked.
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Fearing unauthorized access to his company’s bank account, Gupta reviewed his banking records and was shocked to find large sums of money being transferred out. The fraudulent transactions continued through the early hours of December 23, with the hackers exploiting the bank’s overdraft facility to withdraw Rs 7.42 crore. While Rs 1.37 crore was returned to the account, the net loss still amounted to a staggering Rs 7.42 crore.
Gupta promptly informed bank officials, who froze all further debit transactions to prevent additional losses.
According to police, the fraudsters employed a SIM swap technique, where they deactivated the victim’s SIM card and reactivated it on another device to intercept banking OTPs and access sensitive information. Investigators are probing how the criminals obtained Gupta’s banking credentials and whether insider involvement facilitated the hack.
“This is a classic case of SIM swap fraud,” a police official explained. “The fraudsters deactivate the victim’s SIM card and use it to gain control over personal and banking information. We are investigating how they accessed the bank details and mobile number and whether anyone inside helped them.”
Mumbai Police are urging businesses and individuals to report suspicious SIM swap messages to their telecom providers immediately to prevent similar incidents.