Dr B Thomas (Special correspondent)
The Northeast cyber crime police on Monday arrested a 31-year-old cab driver who had stolen the SIM card from the mobile phone of 70-year-old woman customer while ferrying her to her destination in May 8.
The accused Prakash BG,from Dudda,who worked for Drive U App-on-demand private driver service provider,was arrested after the police realized that the accused had replaced the SIM to operate UPI and payment apps which the SIM had linked to .
Investigations revealed that the accused given option to pick up the victim from her house and drop her to her relatives in her car.
The victim’s son,a techie by profession had booked the cab driver through the app to pick up and drop his mother in his car .
The accused on the way,stopped the car for a refreshment and diverted the attention of the victim to change her SIM.
Using the stolen SIM the accused operated the mobile payment app and transferred Rs.3.5 lakh to his account and also purchased a mobile phone and a scooter using the money.
Meanwhile,few days later the victim realized her SIM was blocked and got the alternative SIM to get the transaction messages .
Based on the complaint, Northeast Cyber crime police inspector,Santosh Ram analyzed the sequences of events before arresting Prakash.
The police have recovered several other duplicate SIM cards from the accused and are investigating to ascertain his criminal background.
The police have advised the people not to lose the phone or in case of theft,alert the bank and service provider to block the SIM card and the bank accounts as it can be accessed through the SIM through UPI.
The UPI service providers should also make it mandatory for multiple phone check authentication before initiating payment process especially in case if the SIM is being used in different phone,a senior officer,said .
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a system that powers multiple bank accounts into a single mobile application is going to be a bane than a boon,in case of misuse.
There are many cases probed by the police in the recent past,that the family members have withdrawn the money from the account of their parents after stealing the SIM for few minutes .
The SIM was replaced in the phone,download the app to withdraw money through app and later download to return the SIM card to its original phone.
Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,C H Pratap Reddy has appreciated Addl CP East,A subramanyeshwara Rao,DCP Northeast,Dr Anoop A Shetty,PI,Santhosh Ram R,PSI,Ramangowda, ASI,Ramesh,and staff for the exemplary work done by them in nabbing the notorious cab driver who used to stole SIM cards from passengers a suitable reward will be given to whole team he added.
