A 41-year old man has lodged a complaint with the police stating that his father had received a text message on his mobile instructing him to settle an e-challan fine for violating traffic rules. The message included a link to an app, prompting the individual to make the payment. Upon downloading the app money was debited from the account of the complainant.
Online Scam Targeting Vehicle Owners
According to the police, the complainant in the case is M.R. Bhosale, a resident of Ambernath, Thane. His father runs an auto rickshaw in Ghatkopar. On March 12, the complainant's father told him that he had received a text message from an unknown number informing that a traffic violation challan had been issued against his vehicle.
"Dear Vehicle Owner/Driver, this is to inform you that you have been issued a traffic challan for the mentioned violation. To confirm your identity and view the evidence related to this violation, please install the Vahan Parivahan app. The app will provide you with the necessary details, including the photo evidence of the violation. Sincerely, Panvel Traffic Police," the message stated.
The message contained a link to download the said app. In order to check how much fine amount is pending on his father's auto rickshaw, the complainant tried downloading the said app through the link on his father's phone but couldn't download the same. He the forwarded the said message on his phone and downloaded the app on his phone.
Victims Falls For Prey, Police Case Registered
After downloading the app, the victim started receiving OTPs on his phone after which he immediately uninstalled the app from his phone. Next day the victim checked his bank statement and was shocked to know that there had been five fraudulent transactions of Rs 10000 each from his account. Having realised that he had been duped, the victim approached the police and got an offence registered in the matter last week.
The police has registered a case under sections 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act. The victim has provided details of the mobile number, fraudulent link and fraudulent transactions details to the police in his complaint.
