Mumbai, March 30: In a shocking case of cyber fraud, a 70-year-old company director from Mumbai was allegedly cheated of Rs 22.34 lakh by fraudsters posing as officials from the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), and falsely claimed that his water bill was pending. They sent an APK file named MIDC.APK, which was used to carry out the scam.
Fraud carried out over multiple weeks
According to the FIR, the victim, Sampatkumar Shivasubramaniam Kumar Sundaram, director of Teleflo India Private Limited and Fluidyne Instruments Private Limited, located on Central Avenue Road in Chembur (East), was targeted between February 2 and February 18.
Modus operandi of fraudsters
The accused, using a mobile number labelled under the name of MIDC, repeatedly called Sundaram around 5 pm, claiming that his companies had an outstanding water bill of Rs 6,000. The fraudster sent bank account details and later tricked the victim into downloading a malicious MIDC.APK file on his mobile phone.
Unauthorised transactions reported
On February 18, Sundaram received an email from ICICI Bank alerting him that Rs 12.34 lakh had been debited from one of the company’s accounts. He immediately informed the company’s accountant, Yashwant Devendra Kotian, 50, who verified the email and lodged a complaint on the national cyber helpline 1930.
Despite this, on February 27, another Rs 10 lakh was fraudulently transferred from the company’s HDFC Bank account. Alerts were again received via SMS and email, following which another complaint was registered on the cyber portal.
Malicious APK file detected
Later, while in Chennai, Sundaram got his phone checked at a mobile gallery, where it was discovered that the malicious APK file had been downloaded onto his device, likely compromising sensitive banking information.
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Police investigation underway
After returning to Mumbai on March 18, Sundaram, along with his accountant, approached the East Region Cyber Police Station and filed an official complaint.
A case has been registered against unidentified individuals, including the mobile number holder, the sender of the APK file, and the beneficiary bank account holders. Mumbai police are currently investigating the matter.
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