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Beware of missed call to check SIM cloning - The Times of India

Be are of missed call to check SIM cloning

Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui, TNN Jul 2, 2012, 04.14AM IST

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LUCKNOW: Next time if you get a missed call starting with +92; #90 or #09, don't show t courtesy of calling back because chances are it would lead to your SIM card being cloned. T telecom service providers are now issuing alerts to subscribers particularly about the serie mentioned above as the moment one press the call button after dialing the above number, someone at the other end will get your phone and SIM card cloned.

Next tim e if you get a m is s ed call s tarting w ith +92; #90 or #09, don t s how the courtes y of calling back becaus e chances are it w ould lead to your SIM card being cloned.

According to reports, more than one lakh subscribers have fallen prey to this new telecom t attack as the frequency of such calls continues to grow. Intelligence agencies have reported confirmed to the service providers particularly in UP West telecom division that such a rack not only under way but the menace is growing fast. "We are sure there must be some more similar combinations that the miscreants are using to clone the handsets and all the information stored in them," an intelligence officer told TOI.

General Manager (GM) BSNL, RV Verma, said the department had already issued alerts to the broadband subscribers and now alert SMSes were being issued to other subscribers as w

As per Rakshit Tandon, an IT expert who also teaches at the police academy (UP), the crooks can use other combination of numbers as wel while making a call. "It is better not to respond to calls received from unusual calling numbers," says Tandon. "At the same time one should avoid storing specifics of their bank account, ATM/ Credit/Debit card numbers and passwords in their phone memory because if one falls a to such crooks then the moment your cell phone or sim are cloned, the data will be available to the crooks who can withdraw amount from your bank accounts as well," warns Punit Misra; an IT expert who also owns a consultancy in Lucknow.

The menace that threatens to steal the subscriber's information stored in the phone or external memory (sim, memory & data cards) has a scary side as well. Once cloned, the culprits can well use the cloned copy to make calls to any number they wish to. This exposes the subscri to the threat of their connection being used for terror calls. Though it will be established during the course of investigations that the cellphon has been cloned and misused elsewhere, it is sure to land the subscriber under quite some pressure till the time the fact about his or her phon being cloned and misused is established, intelligence sources said.

"It usually starts with a miss call from a number starting with + 92. The moment the subscriber calls back on the miss call, his or her cell ph is cloned. In case the subscribers takes the call before it is dropped as a miss call then the caller on the other end poses as a call center execut checking the connectivity and call flow of the particular service provider. The caller then asks the subscriber to press # 09 or # 90 call back o his number to establish that the connectivity to the subscriber was seamless," says a victim who reported the matter to the BSNL office at Moradabad last week. "The moment I redialed the caller number, my account balance lost a sum of money. Thereafter, in the three days th followed every time I got my cell phone recharged, the balance would be reduced to single digits within the next few minutes," she told the BSNL officials.

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Beware of missed call to check SIM cloning - The Times of India

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2012 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reserved. For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service

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