ICICI Bank, Vodafone fined Rs 15 lakh for lapses over Rs 1.19 crore Gujarat SIM-swap fraud
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "ICICI Bank, Vodafone fined Rs 15 lakh for lapses over Rs 1.19 crore Gujarat SIM-swap fraud")
Representational Image. Photograph: (Wikimedia Commons)
The fraud began when Prakash Mehta, the company director, was travelling to Vietnam for business. On March 11, 2023, an unusual email, appearing to come from the firm, sought a SIM swap for Mehta's mobile number, which was linked to OTP verifications for banking transactions.
ICICI Bank was fined Rs 10 lakh, and Vodafone was fined Rs 5 lakh in a Gujarat SIM fraud case involving an Ahmedabad-based firm that lost more than Rs 1.19 crore due to unauthorised bank transactions. The judgment was delivered by Gujarat's Adjudicating Officer under the Information Technology Act.
The case centres on the directors of Collective Trade Links Pvt. Ltd., a bearings trading company, who filed complaints against ICICI Bank, Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) and local police authorities. The case was filed under Sections 43 and 43A of the IT Act, 2000. The complaint explains how criminals executed a SIM-swap operation to bypass OTP authentication measures and siphon money from the overdraft account of the firm over a weekend in March 2023, as per the report in NDTV.
The fraud began when Prakash Mehta, the company director, was travelling to Vietnam for business. On March 11, 2023, an unusual email, appearing to come from the firm, sought a SIM swap for Mehta's mobile number, which was linked to OTP verifications for banking transactions.
Vodafone Idea activated the duplicate SIM
Vodafone Idea approved the request and activated the duplicate SIM by 4:30 pm the same day, without carrying out proper verification, despite the number being active on international roaming. Later, when the office was closed on Sunday, scammers used the duplicate SIM to obtain OTPs and proceeded with 22 transactions totalling Rs 1,19,37,000 through RTGS and NEFT from the company's ICICI Bank account.
Then, 10 new beneficiaries were registered, and amounts far beyond usual limits were transferred to unfamiliar accounts for newly added payees. Meanwhile, Director Bharatkumar Mehta was notified of delayed transaction alerts on his secondary number, until the damage was already done.
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The scam came to light the following day when the company’s accountants checked the account. The directors quickly alerted ICICI Bank and filed a police complaint, after which an FIR was registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under sections pertaining to cheating, criminal conspiracy and violations of the IT Act.
In response to the incident, the Adjudicating Officer ordered the respondents to pay a total of Rs 15 lakh in penalties and compensation for their negligence that enabled the SIM-swap fraud. Of this, ICICI Bank was asked to pay Rs 10 lakh under Sections 43(g) and 43(j) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, while Vodafone Idea Limited was fined Rs 5 lakh under Section 43(g).
The order also directs ICICI Bank to return the principal sum of ₹1.05 crore to the complainant in accordance with circular guidelines, with the refund to be completed within six weeks.
