1.3 Lakh stolen from a Mumbai-based man’s bank account in a scam asking him to link phone to Aadhaar

In yet another incident of bank fraud, Paul (name changed for privacy reasons), a Mumbai-based man lost Rs. 1.3 Lakh from his bank account. Here’s what happened based on the story narrated by him in a Facebook post.

After linking our Aadhaar card to bank accounts and PAN, we are now supposed to link it to our mobile phone numbers; telecom companies have started instructing users to do so. And piggybacking on this news, a fraudster was able to scam Paul.

Paul received a message (claiming to be from his telecom service provider) warning him that his SIM and phone number will get deactivated as he had not linked his Aadhaar to his phone number. The message advised Paul to SMS his SIM number to a service number and that things will be sorted out. Believing this message to be true, Paul did as he was told. Thereafter, his SIM got deactivated and the worst happened – Rs 1.3 Lakh was stolen from his bank account. According to him, his SIM was cloned by the fraudster to carry out the scam.

Paul has not shared any details about how this fraud was exactly carried out. He is following up with his bank regarding the case and we hope he gets all the help he requires.

The moral of this incident is a no-brainer
Never share your personal information (that includes your name, phone number, SIM card information, bank details, date of birth, etc.) with anyone no matter how genuine, urgent, or professional they may sound. Paul could have averted this disaster if he had read about or known about the official process of linking a phone number to Aadhaar from a trusted source before acting on the message.

We believe this story is developing and will update this post when we get to hear more about it.

Source:
www.storypick.com/duped-sim-aadhaar-card/

Rajiv Singha