Retired Mumbai principal loses Rs 17 lakh in SIR scam via APK file

A retired college principal from Deonar in Mumbai lost Rs 17 lakh on August 8 after a scammer posing as an Election Commission official tricked him into downloading an APK file. The caller claimed his father's name was incorrectly recorded in the voter list and that he must update his Special Intensive Revision (SIR) form online before the August 8 deadline, warning he could not vote otherwise. Times of India reports he is the first victim of an SIR scam using an APK file to gain remote access to a mobile device.

The scammer, identifying himself as Chandrashekar from the Election Commission, later had a colleague named Santosh Gupta call the victim, who hung up after learning the principal had entered his banking details. The principal was asked to transfer Rs 5 as a form charge and realised he had been duped after receiving two apps, Online Voter Verification and Device Protection. The East Region cyber police station registered an FIR against three unknown persons on August 10 after alerts about five fraudulent transactions, credited to accounts in a private bank and two nationalised banks.