How prominent Hyderabadi engineer in Jeddah lost his savings after phone call

The Hyderabadi, a professional engineer, who spent a lion's share of his life in Saudi Arabia, was initially suspicious.

Jeddah: A prominent Hyderabadi in Jeddah is stunned after one phone call ended in him losing all his savings on one fine weekend.

According to the victim, it all started when he received a phone call from a person claiming to be an employee of the government and wanted to check his Tawakalna update status. The person claimed that the ministry was updating user’s data and asked the victim for information for the same.

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The Hyderabadi, a professional engineer, who spent a lion’s share of his life in Saudi Arabia, was initially suspicious. However, the caller convinced him he was indeed an authorized employee. In fact, he didn’t share any personal particulars since he had received an OTP which he had shared with him. Interestingly, the fraudster called him again the next day pretending to be routine and genuine, when the victim suspected something was wrong and disconnected the call.

The victim grew suspicious by the evening as his phone stopped working. He then approached his telecom service provider where he was informed that his SIM card had been migrated to another telecom provider. The fraudster allegedly obtained a duplicate SIM with the same number and used it for all transactions. When the victim visited the bank, it was too late and he discovered he was a victim of fraud.

“Stunned with the SIM change, I immediately rushed to the bank then I found that my entire savings in the bank vanished,” he said, adding that he had lodged a formal police complaint about the fraud.

A SIM swap is a type of identity theft where an attacker manages to get a new SIM card issued against a registered mobile number and gain access to sensitive information. The scammer then approaches the victim’s mobile operator with fake identity to obtain a duplicate SIM card. The mobile operator deactivates the genuine SIM card and issues a new one to the fraudster believing him to be genuine.