Bengaluru: Cybercrooks appear to have found a new way to exploit the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in Karnataka, with an 82-year-old man losing Rs 3 lakh after a fraudster allegedly posed as an Election Commission of India (ECI) official.According to the complaint filed by R Parthasarathy of Jeevanbhimanagar, he received a call on the evening of July 30 from a person claiming to be an ECI official. When Parthasarathy questioned the caller’s authenticity, the accused insisted that he was a “genuine ECI official” and offered to help with his rejected SIR form.“He told me that my SIR form had been rejected for several reasons and that a fresh form needed to be filled, for which he would assist me. He sent me a link and asked me to click on it. I entered details such as my name and address. Later, he asked me to pay Rs 5 towards processing charges. I tried making the payment through my credit card, but the transaction failed. He then said he would complete the initial process and send a QR code for the payment. While I was waiting, I realised that Rs 3.4 lakh had been transferred from my account in multiple instalments,” the victim stated.police officer said cybercrooks constantly devise new tactics to deceive people. “They latch on to ongoing issues and popular topics so that victims do not suspect the caller’s identity or intentions,” he said.
