AHMEDABAD: A team of the cybercrime branch of city police on Wednesday arrested a 24-year-old man from Pune for the alleged theft of Rs 80 lakh from a businessman’s account in a sim swap fraud.

Gautam Mukherjee, who is from Ranchi in Jharkhand, works for a software analytics firm in Pune.

According to investigators, Mukherjee, a BCA degree holder, had been working with a gang that was using the sim swap modus operandi fraud for about two years.He is currently employed by the Pune firm as a floor executive and three of his accomplices are on the police radar.

Cybercrime police said Mukherjee and his accomplices in May deactivated the simcard of a businessman, got a new one issued and withdrew Rs 79.70 lakh.

Mukherjee transferred Rs 38 lakh to his own bank account which he later converted into US dollars.

He transferred Rs 42 lakh to another account in a private bank.

Cybercrime police had frozen Rs 50 lakh, which was returned to the complainant, said police officers.

Investigators said Mukherjee and his associates were in cahoots with a gang of cybercriminals based in Nigeria.

The gang from Nigeria had bugged the victim’s system and got banking details.

Mukherjee and his aides, who were dealing with employees of telecom service providers, then got his number and swapped the sim.

A police officer said, “Cybercriminals get the personal details of a target through phishing, vishing or smishing.

They use this information to trick telecom companies into issuing duplicate sim cards.

Once the duplicate sim begins to function, the original gets blocked.” The cybercriminals then used the duplicate sim to gain access to the victim's bank accounts and get one-time passwords (OTP) to carry out transactions.

We also published the following articles recentlyData analyst held for Rs 80 lakh SIM-swap fraudA 24-year-old man from Pune has been arrested for allegedly stealing Rs 80 lakh from a businessman's account through a SIMswap fraud.

The accused, Gautam Mukherjee, who works for a software analytics firm, had been involved in this fraudulent activity for about two years.

Three of his accomplices are also under investigation.

Mukherjee has been charged with breach of trust, cheating, criminal conspiracy, and violations of the IT Act.E-Sim to make tracking of lost smartphone easier: Airtel CEO Gopal VittalBharti Airtel CEO, Gopal Vittal, is urging subscribers to transition from regular SIM cards to e-SIMs, stating that it will enhance convenience and make it easier to track lost smartphones.

With an e-SIM, subscribers no longer need physical access to a SIM card and can use multiple mobile numbers on a single e-SIM.

Additionally, e-SIMs are harder for criminals to remove from stolen devices.

Airtel customers can install the e-SIM service on their smartphones via the Airtel Thanks App.How Gang Used Malicious Ad Links To Empty Out AccountsA gang in India has been using malicious ads on the internet to trick people into visiting fake e-commerce websites.

Female telecallers then posed as customer care representatives and convinced victims to follow steps that led to them losing money from their accounts.

The gang was recently exposed when a man clicked on one of their ads on Facebook and had Rs 1 lakh deducted from his account.

The police have arrested several members of the gang and discovered that they had targeted more than 15 victims, with transactions worth over Rs 25-30 lakh.