BENGALURU: A 42-year-old private firm employee fell prey to a ‘fake traffic challan' fraud and lost Rs 70,000 after clicking an APK file recently.
The victim, Hari Krishnan, a resident of Singasandra, southeast Bengaluru, told Electronics City police in his complaint that he received a WhatsApp message from 8318732950 on Jan 19. The message contained details of a traffic violation said to have been committed by his SUV, and a receipt was shared with him stating, "Your vehicle traffic ticket bearing no KA46894230933070073." He was asked to pay the fine by downloading Vahan Parivahan app by clicking on the link sent.
"As I clicked on the link, it gave an alert saying it was a risky file. But I downloaded it. I started getting OTP messages, and my phone was compromised. Then I noticed a few transactions, amounting to Rs 70,000 done from my credit card and the payments were made to an e-commerce company," Krishnan said. He added: "My wife also started getting messages stating someone was making an attempt to transact from her bank account as my mobile number was linked to a few applications used by her. But the fraudsters couldn't siphon off money from her account."
Krishnan immediately contacted the bank and raised a request to cancel the transaction. Subsequently, he complained to the cyber helpline on the same day. He lodged a police complaint on Jan 29.
A senior police officer said a case was registered under Information Technology Act and BNS section 318 (cheating). People should not click on APK files without checking their credentials, the officer added.