Hyderabad: A wide variety of APK files are being used by cyber fraudsters to cheat innocent people. While water bill, electricity bill, RTO challan and traffic challan APKs are the most prevalent ones, cyber crooks have increasingly started baiting victims with fake banking-related apps. In the last two days, six victims approached the three city cyber crime police stations, reporting monetary loss in APK frauds.Among the six victims, a maximum loss of ₹6 lakh was suffered by a 67-year-old retired employee from Gunfoundry. He approached Hyderabad cyber crime police on Friday alleging that a fraudster posing as an IndusInd Bank representative lured him with a lifetime free senior citizen pension card and made him download a fake APK file through a link shared on WhatsApp. After remotely gaining access to his phone banking through the malicious app, the fraudsters siphoned off ₹6 lakh from his bank account in three transactions on Aug 6.In another case, an 82-year-old retired railway officer from Kondapur lost ₹3.7 lakh after clicking a Facebook ad offering to update his Union Bank app. When the victim clicked on the link, he received a call from a fraudster who guided him through a video call. He made the victim install a fake APK and siphoned off the amount from his bank account on Aug 4 and 5 in four transactions.A 44-year-old businessman from Moulali lost ₹3 lakh when he installed an APK file on the instructions of a fraudster posing as an RBL bank representative to enhance the credit card limit on Aug 3. Another RBL bank customer, who is a 63-year-old retired govt employee from Jiyaguda, lost ₹4.6 lakh through three unauthorised transactions on Aug 5. A close inspection of his phone revealed the presence of two malicious apps, RTO Challan and RTO m-Wallet.Similarly, a 73-year-old retired govt employee from Himayatnagar lost ₹4 lakh on Aug 4 when he installed a fake HMWSSB Bill Update.apk he received from a relative’s WhatsApp number, and a 66-year-old retired employee from Boduppal lost ₹1.9 lakh after installing a fake SBI pension card APK on Aug 5.On the complaints of the victims, Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Malkajgiri cyber crime police booked six cases under relevant provisions of the BNS and the IT Act on Thursday and Friday.
