Pune on Alert: New Cybercrime Hack Hijacks Phones Using 401# Call Forwarding

Cybercriminals in Pune have devised a novel method for hacking phones and perpetrating financial fraud through WhatsApp by exploiting a call forwarding feature accessed via the 401# code. This new modus operandi raises concerns about rising cybercrime in the city and highlights the need for vigilance among residents.

A female complainant was busy in her regular office work when she received a call from an unknown number and later her cell phone was hacked, “I got a call during working hours that your courier has arrived as I was busy I asked the caller to send the person home with the courier. The caller was talking in Hindi and said a man would come to deliver the courier and messaged me a number asking me to call him. I called that number, But it did not connect. I was asked to dial the number by dialling *401# and after doing so the person's phone rang, but no one spoke. After a while, my incoming calls stopped. Then a message asking for money was sent to the people in my contact list and later my WhatsApp stopped working.” mentioned the victim in her complaint at the cyber police station.

As per the police, the fraudsters ask the victim to dial *401# following a phone number impersonating a bank or courier employee. When the victim dials the number their phone gets hacked and the fraudsters take access to the victim's phone and send WhatsApp app messages to their contact asking for Rs 45,000 in the victim’s name. The fraudsters reply to the chat messages on WhatsApp to gain trust. Later they provide a bank account number or UPI ID to transfer the money. The police cyber police have received three complaints in the past two days.

Senior Police Inspector Minal Patil of cyber police said, “ The complaints receive a message that a courier has arrived, and the caller is instructed to dial a cellphone number starting with *401#. After that, the messages and calls are thereby routed to that specific number. On the other side, noncriminals get access to your WhatsApp. This is how hackers get into the victim's WhatsApp. Report and ban the number right away if you receive a message asking for money from a recognized number. These complaints have been pouring in over the past two to three days. Do not dial *401# and the number they tell you in any circumstances.”

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has released cautionary advice advising the public to refrain from calling *401# followed by an unknown cellphone number to prevent fraud and cybercrimes. Unconditional call forwarding might be enabled by this operation, allowing scammers to divert incoming calls to the provided unknown number.

Fraudsters pose as customer care agents or technical support personnel from telecom service providers as part of the scam's methodology. When they contact telecom users, they tell them to call *401# and then an unknown cell number. Once set up, this call-forwarding scam allows online fraudsters to use incoming calls for their illicit purposes.