Man receives multiple blank calls, Rs 50 lakh stolen from account shortly afterwards: Report

• Image Credit: Internet

• Dec 12, 2022 | Kabir Chakraborty

According to a report in The Times of India, the victim received several calls in less than two hours and soon discovered several RTGS transaction messages. 

Digital Desk: Most people in the country have heard the constant reminder to never
share personal information, including OTPs and PINs, but what if you only get
calls but can't hear anything on the other end? Should you be wary of them as
well? The answer is, of course, you should.

A director of a security services firm in Delhi recently lost Rs 50 lakh
to thieves who stole from him solely through blank calls, making it one of the
largest cybercrime frauds in terms of value where an individual was targeted
from the national capital.

According to a
report in The Times of India, the victim received several calls in less than
two hours and soon discovered several RTGS transaction messages. Because he
couldn't hear anything on the other end, the victim said he ignored the calls.

According to the report, approximately Rs 12 lakh was transferred to one
account, that of one Bhaskar Mandal, while Rs 10 lakh each went to other
accounts and Rs 4.6 lakh was transferred to one Avijit Giri.

Cops believe the
scammers used a 'SIM swap' technique, in which scammers exploit a flaw in the
two-factor authentication system, in which the second step is a text message or
a phone call. "Scammers also contact people's mobile phone carriers and
trick them into activating a SIM card in this fraud." When this occurs,
they seize control of the phone "a police officer told the publication

"The crooks may have also been listening to the OTPs on the phone
via a parallel call, "Another office informed TOI. However, they are also
looking into other possibilities, such as a phone hijacking

According to the
TOI report, the masterminds of the con may be based in Jharkhand's Jamtara, and
those whose accounts the funds were transferred to may have simply provided
them for a fee or on rent.

This report of
fraud follows a large-scale cyberttack: recently, a ransomware attack on the
All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi rendered its servers
inoperable for at least seven days.

On November 30,
a week after the ransomware attack on AIIMS, the Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR) experienced approximately 6,000 hacking attempts in 24 hours.