Ahmedabad: A real estate developer from Sola area in Ahmedabad was duped of Rs 1.07 crore in an alleged e-sim swapping fraud, prompting a complaint with the cybercrime police on Thursday.According to the complaint, the fraud surfaced on the night of March 21 when the victim’s mobile e-sim suddenly stopped working. Assuming it to be a network issue, he contacted his telecom service provider, only to be informed that the e-sim had been blocked following a request.The complainant later obtained a new sim card. However, upon checking his company’s bank account the following day, he discovered that Rs 1.07 crore had been siphoned off through 15 transactions to multiple accounts.Police officials said the transactions were carried out on March 21 and 22 without the victim’s knowledge while his registered mobile number remained inactive, raising suspicion of unauthorised access to his netbanking credentials. The account, used for business purposes, also had a cash credit facility.Investigators suspect that the accused orchestrated the fraud by first deactivating the victim’s e-sim, thereby disabling transaction alerts and OTP-based authentication, before gaining access to the bank account and executing multiple transfers.A probe has been initiated to trace the beneficiaries and identify the perpetrators involved in the cyberfraud.
