Cyber criminals divert Rs 50 lakh from Delhi-based director’s account through missed calls

Cybercrooks fraudulently diverted Rs 50 lakh from the account of a top executive of a Delhi-based security services firm by repeatedly giving him missed calls on his mobile phone. They didn’t ask for a one-time password (OTP).

The victim, a director at the company, received several calls in a span of less than two hours between 7 pm and 8.45 pm a few days ago. He answered a few calls but since no one was responding on the other side, he avoided other calls. However, he received messages of RTGS (instant fund transfer) transactions worth nearly half a crore, The Times of India reported.

Preliminary investigations suggested that the first Rs 12 lakh was transferred to one particular account belonging to a Bhaskar Mandal. Another Rs 4.6 lakh was transferred to the account of one Avijit Giri. Two other accounts received Rs 10 lakh each. Other transactions of smaller amounts were also carried out.

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Investigations further suggested that the masterminds of the cyberattack may be based out of the tribal district of Jharkhand, Jamtara. It is also being reported that the recipients could just be the account holders who have given their accounts on rent to the crooks in return for a commission.

The police believe that the fraudsters may have pulled the heist by using the ‘SIM swap’ technique. In SIM swap, fraudsters take over the account of a person by targeting a loophole in the two-factor authentication or two-step verification where the second step is either a text message or call placed to a mobile phone.

Fraudsters also call the mobile phone carriers and trick them into activating a SIM card, thereby taking control of the phone, The Times of India quoted an officer as saying.

The police are also investigating other angles such as a phone hijack, the report said.

In January this year, a businessman from Ahmedabad received a missed call and his SIM cards were deactivated. He later discovered that Rs 46 lakh had been stolen from his bank account, News18 reported.

In a similar incident in 2020, a Mumbai-based businessman lost Rs 1.86 crore after getting six missed calls at night, Gadgets Now reported.