Navi Mumbai: A police sub-inspector attached to Thane police became the victim of an e-sim scam where a hacker compromised his mobile number, obtained a duplicate e-SIM, and withdrew Rs 2.33 lakh from his bank accounts.
The sub-inspector, a resident of Koparkhairane and serving in the Thane city police department, first noticed the issue on November 28 when his mobile phone stopped functioning. Unable to make calls or receive messages, he visited a Jio service center in Koparkhairane, where he was informed that his sim card could only be reactivated through biometric verification at an Aadhaar center.
Two days later, on November 30, the sub-inspector’s friend tried to contact him, only to discover that the call was answered by an unknown person who identified himself as Shivaji Yadav. Alarmed, the friend informed the sub-inspector, who then attempted to call his own number and found another person answering the calls.
Fearing that the number has been hacked, the sub-inspector immediately checked his bank account and found that Rs 2.33 lakh had been withdrawn from three different accounts. He lodged a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Portal and later filed a formal report at the Koparkhairane police station.
“As per the investigations, we found that the scamster had sent a message to the complainant asking him to click a link if he wanted to apply for e-sim. After the link was clicked, the accused got a e-sim of the complainant made. His number was linked with three bank accounts and once he had the access of the e-sim, he made the transactions using the OTPs he received,” senior police inspector Audumber Patil from Koparkhairane police station said. The police are further investigating the case.
