Krishnanagar Residents Lost ₹7L in APK-Based Scams
Krishnanagar Residents Lost ₹7L in APK-Based Scams
Ahmedabad, Gujarat: In remarkably similar cybercrimes, two Krishnanagar residents lost ₹1.42 lakh and ₹5.35 lakh from their respective bank accounts within days of each other after opening malicious Android Package Kit (APK) files that were shared via WhatsApp.
In the first case, a 35-year-old construction worker filed a formal complaint (FIR) at the Cyber Crime police station on Saturday, claiming that he was on vacation in Himachal Pradesh last month when he got a WhatsApp message from an unidentified number that looked like his bank’s profile picture.
The communication included an APK file masquerading as a form and requested that he update his KYC. Thinking it was real, he filled it out and sent it in. When he attempted a transaction on August 20, weeks later, he found that three transfers totaling ₹5.35 lakh had been syphoned out of his bank account.
The complainant told police that he did not originally receive transaction alerts on his phone when he attempted to notify his bank, suggesting that fraudsters may have remotely deactivated the alert from his online account.
A 39-year-old resident of Krishnanagar who worked for a private bank’s loan recovery unit lodged a separate complaint at the Krishnanagar police station in a related event.
He informed police in his Friday FIR that on August 15, he received an APK file on WhatsApp from an unidentified number that was marked as an RTO challan.
His phone was compromised after he opened the file, allowing scammers to use his credit card to make two purchases totaling ₹1.42 lakh. He called the cybercrime helpline and banned his card right away after getting SMS alerts about the debits.
It’s interesting to note that both complainants had accounts with the same Krishnanagar bank.
For sections relating to identity theft and personation under the Information and Technology Act and cheating under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Cyber Crime and Krishnanagar police stations have filed formal complaints (FIRs). The BNS also charges the former with criminal conspiracy, while the latter has been charged with criminal breach of trust. More investigations are being conducted, and investigators are tracking down the bank accounts and phone numbers of the unidentified parties involved.
About The Author:
Yogesh Naager is a content marketer who specializes in the cybersecurity and B2B space. Besides writing for the News4Hackers blogs, he also writes for brands including Craw Security, Bytecode Security, and NASSCOM.
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