kolkata: Two persons were arrested for allegedly duping a businessman of about Rs 84 lakh by swapping mobile phone's SIM card.
On August 4, the businessman, Sivam Arora, lodged a complaint at the Hare Street police station against unknown miscreants. During the probe, police learnt that the crime had been committed by switching Arora's mobile phone's SIM card, which was linked to his bank account.
The incident came to light after Arora noticed his SIM card was not working. He found that the miscreants had withdrawn Rs 84 lakh from his account with a private bank's branch in the Hare Street area. Cops found that before his SIM card was deactivated, Arora had received a number of messages from the service provider for confirmation of SIM switching.
Experts said the accused used a technique called 'message blasting.' The accused had made repeated attempts to activate a SIM card for which consent of the user was necessary. When the service provider sent a message to confirm whether the user made any such request, Arora might have tapped yes accidentally. As a result, another SIM card was activated using his mobile number where OTPs and other bank related information were sent.
Police tracked the mobile phone's details in which the SIM was used. The accused, identified as Rahul Roy Chowdhury and Soma Das, were remanded in police custody till August 26.