A 42-year-old personal firm worker in Bengaluru misplaced ₹70,000 to a ‘pretend site visitors challan’ rip-off after clicking on a malicious APK file. The sufferer, Hari Krishnan, a resident of Singasandra in southeast Bengaluru, reported the incident to the Electronics Metropolis police.
One other Bengaluru man misplaced ₹70,000 to cyber fraudsters after clicking on an APK file which he obtained via WhatsApp.
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Right here is how the rip-off unfolded
In keeping with a report in The Instances of India, the sufferer obtained a WhatsApp message from the quantity 8318732950 on January 19, claiming he had violated site visitors guidelines. The message included a receipt stating, “Your vehicle traffic ticket bearing no KA46894230933070073,” and instructed him to pay the tremendous by downloading the ‘Vahan Parivahan’ app by way of a hyperlink supplied within the message.
Regardless of receiving a warning that the file was dangerous, Krishnan proceeded to obtain it. Quickly after, he started receiving a number of OTP messages, indicating his cellphone had been compromised. He later seen unauthorized transactions amounting to ₹70,000 created from his bank card to an e-commerce platform.
Moreover, Krishnan’s spouse additionally began receiving messages about tried transactions from her checking account, as a few of her functions have been linked to his cellular quantity. Happily, the scammers have been unable to withdraw cash from her account.
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Realizing the fraud, Krishnan instantly contacted his financial institution to dam the transaction and reported the problem to the cyber helpline on the identical day. On January 29, he formally lodged a criticism with the police. A senior police officer confirmed {that a} case had been registered below the Info Know-how Act and Part 318 (dishonest) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The officer additionally suggested the general public to keep away from downloading APK recordsdata from unknown sources.
In the same rip-off reported earlier, a 60-year-old techie from Bengaluru’s Whitefield was swindled out of ₹2.8 crore by fraudsters posing as financial institution officers. The scammers lured him with a smartphone as a ‘gift,’ which was pre-installed with a cloning app and different malicious software program. As soon as activated, the system allowed the fraudsters to take full management of his cellphone, change the cellular quantity linked to his checking account, and achieve unauthorized entry. Utilizing this management, they siphoned off his whole fastened deposit quantity.
Authorities have urged folks to stay vigilant in opposition to such cyber frauds and chorus from clicking on suspicious hyperlinks or downloading unverified functions.