eSIM Mobile Fraud: I4C Warns Users of eSIM Scams, Shares Tips to Stay Safe

The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) was established by the Government of India's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in January 2020. Its primary agenda is to tackle cybercrimes in India, while aiming to enhance coordination between the law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders. Staying true to its agenda, the I4C has issued a new warning for citizens to spread awareness about a new eSIM fraud that has been brought to its notice.

I4C Highlighted That Scammers Gain Access to a Victim's Phone Numbers

The I4C has issued a warning about a recently reported eSIM scam used to target users in India. The government agency noted one instance where a person had disabled ATM and UPI features, but the scammers were still able to siphon off Rs. 4 lakhs from the victim's bank account. In this scam, threat actors hijacked their target's phone numbers to gain access to OTPs sent by banks to their customers.

According to I4C, the scammers first call their victims and send an eSIM activation link to their phones. When a person clicks on this link, the request to convert the victim's physical SIM into an eSIM gets automatically accepted, making them lose access to their messages. Then the physical SIM stops working, and the users stop receiving network signals on their handsets. All calls and messages, including the OTPs, are then redirected to the eSIM, which is only accessible to the bad actors.

The fraudsters then proceed to send bank transaction requests, for which the victims' banks send an OTP to the registered phone number. Since these authorisation codes are now received by the eSIM, the scammers are able to easily siphon off money from a person's bank accounts.

The I4C has also included three safety tips in its warning. To avoid getting duped, the agency said that users should beware of unknown callers and links sent to them. They should request eSIM conversion themselves, while not relying on untrusted sources. On top of this, if a person's phone stops receiving network signals, they should immediately inform their respective banks and telecom service providers.

This comes weeks after the Department of Telecommunications' (DoT) Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) reportedly blacklisted between 3,00,000 to 4,00,000 SIM cards that were allegedly involved in fraudulent financial activities. FRI's AI-enabled tools flag about 2,000 high-risk phone numbers daily, the report added. These blacklisted phone numbers were allegedly being used for carrying out investment or job-related scams.