Hyderabad: Three arrested in SIM swap fraud

Hyderabad: The cybercrime department of Hyderabad city police on Saturday brought three persons from Kolkata to Hyderabad on prisoner transit warrant as three were accused of SIM cards swap fraud. The arrested persons were identified as, Sagar Mahato, Kumar Gaurav Singh and Sanjay Agarwal.

According to police, the main accused is a Nigerian named Shedrick Paul who is still absconding. The main accused operates from Nigeria and he sends links to the mail ID's of bank customers on the name of Income Tax refund or any other process refund. Once the customer clicks on the links provided in the email, then his electronic device which is used for accessing the mails will be hacked.

B Ramesh, Inspector of Police, Cybercrime, said, "By using this technique the main accused would hack the customer's details. Later on he shares the details with Sagar Mahato who then visits a mobile shop and purchases new SIM card by submitting fake KYC documents of the registered mobile number of the customer with the bank saying that his mobile number was lost and used by somebody."

"In this way the services of original SIM card customer will be stopped and the new details will be activated but the new details are now available with the fraudsters. Later on the main accused Shedrick will add beneficiaries in the bank account of the customer without his knowledge and diverts the money using the internet banking and OTP's received on new phone number. Later the accused and his associates would withdraw the entire amount from the bank," stated the officer.

The issue came to light when a victim filed a police complaint stating that his money was siphoned off from his bank accounts as he had three overdraft accounts with DCB bank and was using same email id for all his business transactions and one fine day he saw that an amount of Rs 35 lakh has been transferred illegally to some beneficiaries without his knowledge. Based on the complaint a case was registered and three persons were arrested u/s 66 C, D of IT Act and 419, 420 of IPC and were remanded to judicial custody, said the police.