e-SIM fraud leads to theft of over MVR 200,000

A man has fallen victim to the theft of over MVR 200,000 from his bank accounts after his SIM was changed to an e-SIM without his knowledge.

Ahmed Hameed, a businessman from K. Himmafushi, first noticed that his phone was constantly out of range last May. He initially suspected it was an issue with his phone, and visited Male' the next day, where he took his phone to a repair shop. The repair shop, however, reported that there are no issues with the phone, leading Hameed to think that that the issue may be with his SIM card.

Hameed then visited Dhiraagu, where he was caught unawares when he was told that his SIM card was no longer functioning as it had been transferred to an e-SIM on request.

Hameed told Mihaaru News yesterday that he had not sent any requests to transfer this phone number to an e-SIM. Despite this, Dhiraagu had informed him that two phone numbers registered under his name had been transferred to e-SIMs.

This second number is used by Hameed's wife.

To request for a Dhiraagu e-SIM, customers need to log in to Dhiraagu My Account and submit a request, or request for a QR code via email.

Hameed said that he has since learned that the perpetrator had done this through gaining access to Hameed's Dhiraagu My Account. Surprisingly, even after committing the fraud, Hameed's My Account and Gmail passwords remained unchanged.

On his return to Himmafushi, Hameed checked the balance of BML bank accounts, where he found that all his funds had been stolen. Hameed said that all the funds in his personal account, business account, as well as his wife's account had been stolen.

Hameed, who runs the 'Hulhan'gu Lodge' guesthouse in Himmafushi, said he had MVR 65,000 in his personal account, USD 8,600 in his business account and MVR 9,800 in his wife's account.

"The funds were transferred from my [business] dollar account to my personal account at the exchange rate of MVR 15.42 and withdrawn," Hameed said.

Hameed said that the funds in his account had been transferred to various other accounts. MVR 25,000 each were transferred to most of these accounts, Hameed said.

"In total, this is over MVR 200,000. Everything is gone now. Not a penny is left," Hameed said.

Via the bank, Hameed contacted the owners of two bank accounts to which transfers had been sent to from his account.

"When I called them, they said that a friend had deposited these funds to their accounts, asking for them to withdraw it and hand it over. They said that they knew the person well, so granted their request. They even said the person had given them MVR 150 and said to have a snack as thanks," Hameed said.

Hameed further claimed that MVR 50,000 had also been sent to a Male' business account.

Hameed said that the matter had been reported to Police as well, but voiced concerns about the lack of progress seen in the investigation despite about two months having passed since the incident.