Pune pensioner, 80, loses Rs 5 lakh to cyber fraudster posing as Election Commission official
An 80-year-old retired Tata Motors employee in Yerawada was cheated after a caller claiming to be from the Election Commission got him to install an APK file and share his screen.
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Cyber fraudsters in Pune have cheated an 80-year-old man of Rs 5 lakh on the pretext of updating his voter card. The caller claimed to be speaking from the office of the Election Commission of India and used that trust to trap the senior citizen.
According to police, Kanjasheri Vaidyanathan Venkatesan (80), who retired from Tata Motors, lives in the Yerawada area. On October 7, he received a call from an unknown man. The caller said he was speaking from the office of the Election Commission of India and that the process of updating the voter card had to be completed.
By assuring him that the call was from a government office, the accused won Venkatesan's trust. He was then made to download an APK file on his mobile phone. As soon as the file was downloaded, the accused, on the pretext of completing the remaining process, forced him to share his phone screen.
It is alleged that through screen sharing, the accused obtained confidential information linked to the bank account. According to the complaint, once the bank passwords were in his hands, the accused withdrew Rs 5 lakh from the senior citizen's account.
A complaint was filed when the elderly man realised that someone else had withdrawn the money from his account. It has emerged that the accused used three methods: posing as a government official, getting a suspicious file downloaded on the mobile phone, and using screen sharing.
A case has been registered against the accused at Lakshminagar police station in Pune. Action has been taken under Sections 308, 318(4) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Sections 66(D) and 66(C) of the Information Technology Act. Further investigation is under way into the identity of the accused and the full method of the fraud.
Cyber criminals are targeting people in the name of updating voter cards, Aadhaar cards or other government documents. People should not download an APK file sent by an unknown person onto their phones, should not share their screen with an unknown person, and should not disclose bank passwords, OTPs or other confidential information to anyone.
Even if a caller says he is a government official, it is essential to verify his identity through an official channel. In case of cyber fraud, contact the bank immediately and file a complaint on the national cyber crime helpline number 1930. A complaint can also be filed on the official portal cybercrime.gov.in.
