Bhopal SIM-port case: Rs 2.1 lakh reportedly stolen after fake bank helpline

According to reports in Dainik Bhaskar, AajTak and GNT TV, a 29-year-old woman in Bhopal told police that her Jio SIM was ported to Vi on 24 August 2026, that the new SIM activated on 26 August, and that about Rs 2.10 lakh later left her UCO Bank account. Dainik Bhaskar gives the total as Rs 2,09,586.25. UCO Bank, Jio and Vi have not issued their own public confirmation of this case. The open reporting does not include a police press release, an FIR copy, or a statement from the bank or either telecom company.

Those outlets report that on the evening of 27 August 2026 she received an SMS about a Rs 70,050 debit, searched Google for the bank’s customer-care number, and called it. They say the person who answered posed as bank staff and obtained her mobile number, Aadhaar details, date of birth and other personal and bank information. The amounts they list as unauthorised are Rs 9,890, Rs 9,972, Rs 9,980 and Rs 70,050 on 27 August, plus Rs 1,09,694.25 on 1 September. She reportedly saw the full total when she visited the bank on 1 September, then filed a complaint. AajTak and GNT quote Additional DCP Anil Sharma as saying an FIR was registered against unknown persons and that the investigation is continuing.

Headlines say she got a fake bank call. Reports say she dialled Google.

Coverage of this story leads with the money and with “fake customer care.” That framing trains you to watch for an unexpected incoming call and to treat this as a hack of a bank. According to the same reports, she placed the call herself after doing what every bank poster tells you to do: she saw a debit SMS and looked up customer care. If those accounts are right, the trap was not a stranger ringing her. It was a Google result at the exact moment she was trying to be careful.

The other thing the rupee figure hides is what this incident is not, on the evidence published so far. Dainik Bhaskar, AajTak and GNT are describing one woman’s police complaint in Bhopal — not a stolen customer file from UCO Bank, Jio or Vi. No company or regulator has said a list of accounts was taken. If you are reading this because you fear your name is in a giant leak, the outlets have not described that kind of event. That is not a promise you are safe from every scam. It is what these reports actually support.

What the reports do describe, days before any Google search, is a SIM moving to another network at a mobile shop. Once a number has been ported without you, bank messages and login codes go to the new SIM, not to the phone in your hand. How anyone first learned of that new SIM, or timed the first debit, is still unconfirmed. Police are quoted as investigating a possible link to the shop or to leaked data; the outlets do not say that link has been proved.

What to actually expect

• Do not wait for an email from UCO Bank, Jio or Vi about “this claimed breach.” According to the reporting, none of them have put out a public statement, and no outlet has described a stolen customer list.
• Bhopal police have reportedly filed an FIR against unknown people. Outlets quote an officer saying the probe continues, including any possible connection to the shop that did the port. That is not the same as a finding that the shop was involved.
• There is no public list of victims for this case. Nobody can honestly tell you whether you were “in this incident,” and a clean result from any scan would not mean you are safe.
• If your number was not moved to another network in late August 2026 and you did not see matching debits, these reports describe one local complaint — not a nationwide emptying of UCO accounts.

What you can and cannot fix

If the reports are right, the Aadhaar details, date of birth, mobile number and bank information spoken on that call are already in someone else’s hands. That cannot be undone. A national ID number does not come back because a website later offers to “remove” it. Nobody can recall a phone call.

If you were not that person, this story as reported is not a leaked spreadsheet with your row in it. There is nothing from this incident to delete you from.

• If your SIM moved without you asking, that is the live problem. The reports describe money leaving after the number had already been ported. Use a helpline you saved earlier, or an operator store you chose, to freeze or recover the number. Do not search the web for a number after a panic SMS — that is the step the outlets say came next in this case.
• After a debit alert, do not look up the bank on Google. According to the coverage, she found the number that way. Use the number printed on your card or inside the official bank app already on your phone.
• Aadhaar and date of birth, once spoken, stay spoken. You cannot unsay them. What still helps is making those numbers harder to reuse: in the official Aadhaar app or website you already trust, you can lock the number so it is less useful for a new SIM or a fresh bank check, and in your bank’s official app you can tighten alerts and limits. That does not erase what the caller has.
• Shrink the public listings that make a stolen record worse. A mobile number or a national ID becomes much more dangerous when it can be joined to people-search and directory pages that add relatives, extra phone numbers, employers and previous addresses. Those listings, unlike the details given on a fraud call, can actually be taken down. That is the part of your footprint you can still reduce.