eSIM Fraud: Government's warning, fraud is happening through e-SIM, how to avoid it

eSIM Fraud: The government has issued a warning to users about the eSIM scam. Also, ways to avoid this new dangerous fraud have been discussed. According to the report, the Department of Telecommunications is blocking 2 thousand fake mobile numbers daily.

eSIM Fraud: The government has issued a warning about a new type of fraud. The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Center (I4C), a unit of the Home Ministry, has issued a warning to users about the scam in the name of fake e-SIM cards. The government has issued an advisory to all the agencies and stakeholders of the country regarding this, so that users can be made aware about this new fraud.

Government's warning

I4C said in its warning that recently many cases of eSIM scams have come to light, in which despite disabling a user's ATM card and UPI account, scammers defrauded Rs 4 lakh from the account. To carry out such scams, cyber criminals target users' phone numbers so that they can get access to OTP. As soon as they get access to the OTP sent by the bank to the customers, scammers break into their accounts.

How do they commit fraud?

I4C said that scammers first call users and send them eSIM activation links. As soon as users click on the link, scammers get access to their mobile numbers. The signals from the users' phones with physical SIMs are lost and the SIM is activated in the scammers' eSIM device. As soon as they get access to the mobile number, scammers transact from the users' accounts. For this, OTP is required, which is found on the eSIM activated by the scammers.

Keep these things in mind

I4C has asked users to keep some things in mind to avoid such fraud. The government agency warned people to ignore calls coming from unknown numbers. Also, do not open any link sent from these numbers. By doing this, hackers will deactivate your physical SIM and activate eSIM in their phone and get access to bank account, UPI etc.

Apart from this, if the signal suddenly disappears in the phone of any mobile user, then they should immediately contact the bank and telecom operator. The Department of Telecommunications has recently blocked 3 lakh to 4 lakh SIM cards in view of the increasing financial fraud. These SIM cards were being used for fraud. Apart from this, 2 thousand mobile numbers are being blocked daily through AI enabled tool.