2024-08-23 10:02:29
New Delhi: Fraudsters are stealing money by breaking into people’s bank accounts through SIM swapping. The latest case is related to a soldier. The fraudster fraudulently obtained a duplicate SIM card of the soldier’s Airtel mobile number. After this, he stole about Rs 2.88 lakh from his account. After the case came to light, the soldier filed a complaint against the company in the consumer forum. The consumer forum found the company at fault and ordered it to pay the amount withdrawn from his account and give compensation. The case is of the year 2017. The soldier who was cheated was posted in Jammu and Kashmir. He came to know that a fraudster had fraudulently withdrawn Rs 2,87,630 from his SBI account. Actually, the fraudster had obtained the soldier’s Airtel number. The company had issued the soldier’s number to the fraudster without verification. After this, the soldier’s number was switched off and the fraudster’s number started. In this way, SIM swapping was done with the fraudster. After this, they siphoned off a lot of money from the soldier’s account through Paytm, Airtel Money etc. Later, the soldier came to know that this fraud happened due to Airtel’s mistake. Airtel gave the soldier’s duplicate number to the fraudster without verification.
Government banks suffered a loss of Rs 140 crore, had to pay compensation to customers, know the whole matter
The company did not admit fault
On coming to know about the fraud, the soldier immediately lodged a complaint with Airtel. However, Airtel refused to refund the fraudulently withdrawn money. After this, the soldier filed a consumer complaint before the Almora District Forum of Uttarakhand.
The Almora District Forum investigated and ordered Airtel to pay the soldier the fraudulently withdrawn amount, compensation and legal expenses. Airtel challenged this order in the High Court and the case was subsequently heard before the State Consumer Commission and then the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC). The NCDRC upheld the order of the District Forum and ordered Airtel to pay compensation of about Rs 4.83 lakh to the soldier.
How to identify SIM swapping?
SIM swapping can happen to anyone. Identify SIM swapping like this:
- If the network of the company providing network from your mobile like Jio, Airtel, Idea etc. suddenly disappears.
- If the network disappears, switch the phone off and then on again. Even after this, the network may not come.
- If the network is not restored even after one or two minutes of network loss, then immediately dial your number from another number. If your number rings, then understand that your SIM has been swapped because your SIM is in your phone and its network is missing. Still, the number rings.
What to do if the network goes out?
Sometimes the network goes down due to technical reasons, but not for a very long time. Do these things after the network goes down:
- If the number rings, immediately go to the nearest centre and get your SIM deactivated. If the centre is not nearby, then call customer care from another number and inform them about the entire situation.
- Even if the ring is not ringing, call customer care and tell them that the network has suddenly disappeared from your phone.
- If you want, you can also lodge a complaint in the nearest police station.
Shut down banking services
If the network goes off in your mobile and does not come back in a minute or two, call your bank from another number and tell them about the situation. Also, get all types of banking services temporarily stopped by the bank. It would be better if you also send an email to the bank from your registered email ID informing them about the situation. In this also, ask the bank to stop banking services with immediate effect. However, now many banks also give the option of stopping banking services in their app. Through this also you can stop your banking services immediately. By doing this, no one will be able to break into your account.