Hyderabad man loses Rs 3.25 lakh in fake ECI verification scam

Hyderabad: A 75-year-old retired Reserve Bank of India (RBI) employee from Ameerpet lost Rs 3.50 lakh in a fake Election Commission of India (ECI) voter verification process.

The victim, Vishnu Mohan Venna, approached the Hyderabad cybercrime police and filed a complaint on Tuesday, August 11.

How fraudsters target Hyderabad man

According to the complaint, Mohan received an SMS four days earlier asking him to share a photograph of his voter ID card through a WhatsApp number.

Mohan sent a photograph of his voter ID through WhatsApp, believing it was related to voter verification.

Later, he received a WhatsApp call from a person who claimed that his name did not match his father’s name.

He received another message containing a link claiming it to be an ECI verification link. Believing it to be genuine, he opened the link and entered his details.

APK file used in alleged cyber fraud

Later, he received an APK file. He was asked to install it.

After installation, he was then asked to pay Rs 5 towards a verification charge.

Though he attempted to make the payment through internet banking, the transaction appeared unsuccessful.

Following this, the fraudsters then made a WhatsApp video call and allegedly told him that the payment had failed because of a server problem.

Another video call followed, during which the caller said that Mohan’s face needed to be verified. He adhered to the instruction and followed the procedure.

Rs 3.25 lakh withdrawn without authorisation

At around 8:26 pm, he received an SMS from his bank, which mentioned that Rs 3.25 lakh had been debited from his account. Though the man neither initiated nor approved the transaction, the money got transferred.

Sensing something was wrong, he contacted bank officials and asked them to block the account.

After blocking the account, he reported the incident through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.

On receiving the complaint, Hyderabad cybercrime police registered a case under Sections 66C and 66D of the Information Technology Act and Sections 318(4) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).