Cyberabad police arrest notorious cyber criminal in SIM swap fraud

Hyderabad: The Cyberabad cyber crime police, on 31 August, arrested a 34-year-old man from West Bengal who was involved in a SIM swap racket. Bikas Shaw, a resident of 24 Paraganas in West Bengal, was booked under various sections of the IPC and the IT Act 2008.

The police received a complaint on 21 January 2019 from one of the victims who had been cheated to the tune of nearly Rs. 26 lakh. According to the complainant, his mobile number stopped operating on 14 January and he got a new SIM on 21 January by submitting all the necessary details.

Upon activation of his new SIM card, he received alerts from his bank stating that money had been transferred from his accounts. When he checked his bank account, to his dismay he found that Rs. 26,44,807 had been transferred to three bank accounts. Based on his complaint, a case was registered at the Cyberabad cyber crime police station.

According to the police, Shaw is a notorious cybercriminal who has been active since 2011. He has been helping Nigerians cheat Indians. Earlier, he had been arrested by the Karnataka, Jharkand, Kolkata, Rajasthan, and Hyderabad police in SIM swap fraud cases.

Shaw, as per the directions of the Nigerians, hired men to open fake bank accounts and collect replaced SIM cards from various mobile network stores. The money collected from the victims was transferred to fake bank accounts provided by him. After taking his commission, he transferred the rest to the Nigerians either in Bitcoins or to the account numbers provided by them.

Meanwhile, the fraudsters who were operating from abroad hacked company e-mails in India through phishing and collected the Internet banking details through the registered mobile number of the victims. The fraudsters then swapped the SIM card by submitting fake identity proofs and transferred the funds from the company accounts to their accounts through net banking, said the police.