Cybercrooks pull off 50 lakh heist with just blank calls

[Arjun]

Cybercrooks pull off Rs 50 lakh heist with just blank calls | Delhi News - Times of India

NEW DELHI: A director of a south Delhi-based security services firm lost Rs 50 lakh to cybercrooks, who diverted the money by repeatedly giving him bl.

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

How does this scam happen and how to protect against it?

 

[mzsa1994]

I think it's Pegasus like phone hack, exploiting hardware/software vulnerability with just a blank/miss call.

 

[Arjun]

Clarification should come form bank/police immediately.

 

[singenaadam]

frightening.

 

[Kloud]

How does this scam happen and how to protect against it?

As per the article, this could be one SIM Swap type scam.

In such scams, your sim card is cancelled and someone else generates your sim card anywhere in the country. All you need is an active participant at a mobile shop. Technically, it's possible that anyone can cancel anyone's sim card and get a copy.

How to protect against it? Well, back in days, central govt mandated aadhar biometric verification to generate a new sim card. So it was almost impossible to do this type of scam. However, Supreme Court removed this regulation citing some privacy infringement. Now, it's a wild wild west.

 

[Arjun]

This isnt sim swap. If his sim was swapped he would not receive blank calls.

 

[n1r0]

This isnt sim swap. If his sim was swapped he would not receive blank calls.

Further, replacement SIMs now have a period where the network blocks all incoming OTP SMSs to inhibit SIM swap scams. A friend got a new Airtel SIM and experienced this

 

[nRiTeCh]

Best solution is to shift back to b/w phones.. Banking sims in that phone is an added security.