Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Cyber scammers sent a fake traffic challan link and duped an employee of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) of Rs 2.50 lakh. The incident took place in MP Nagar where the victim was misled into believing that the message he received was an official notice regarding an unpaid traffic fine.
According to police, the victim has been identified as 33-year-old Gaurav Tripathi, a resident of Bawadia Kalan in Shahpura who is posted at RBI office in MP Nagar.
On January 6, Gaurav received a text message on his mobile phone claiming that a traffic challan was pending against his vehicle. The message warned of traffic rule violations and asked him to pay the fine immediately by clicking on a link provided in the message.
Assuming the message to be genuine, Gaurav clicked on the link to clear the fine. During the payment process, an OTP was generated on his mobile phone. Unaware that he was interacting with a fraudulent website, he entered the required details. This enabled the cyber criminals to gain access to his bank account.
Within a short period of time, Rs 2.50 lakh was withdrawn from his account in multiple transactions. When Gaurav realised that he had been cheated, he approached police and lodged a complaint.
MP Nagar police have registered a case and started an investigation with the help of cyber crime Cell. Police officials said initial findings indicate that the fraudsters used a phishing website designed to closely resemble the official transport department s online challan portal. Police are now tracing the digital trail of transactions and the origin of the fake link.
