Now Reading: 77-year-old loses Rs 4.98 lakh in fake voter data fraud
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77-year-old loses Rs 4.98 lakh in fake voter data fraud
A 77-year-old man from Wadgaon Budruk lost Rs 4.98 lakh after a fraudster posing as an election commission official called him on August 2, claiming a mismatch in his SIR data. The…
The Story in Brief
A 77-year-old man from Wadgaon Budruk lost Rs 4.98 lakh after a fraudster posing as an election commission official called him on August 2, claiming a mismatch in his SIR data. The caller, using a WhatsApp video call with no visible face, sent the victim a link and three APK files, asking him to download them and pay Rs 5 for data update. The victim’s credit card and internet banking transactions failed, but bank alerts later showed three debits of Rs 1.50 lakh, Rs 1.99 lakh and Rs 1.49 lakh. The son alerted banks and reported to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. Police are investigating the mobile numbers, WhatsApp account, APK files and bank accounts used.
The Indian Opinion
The alarm over election data misuse is real, but this case shows criminals exploiting that fear for quick theft. The narrative that digitalisation of voter rolls opens new avenues for fraud is one-sided. The real story is a simple phishing operation using APK files and a bogus voice call. The test will be how many such APK-based frauds the police trace back to actual data breaches versus random attempts.
Source: hindustantimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
