Ahmedabad: A 47-year-old lawyer from Gota allegedly lost Rs 7.9 lakh from his overdraft account after cyberfraudsters posing as employees of a gas company sent him a malicious APK file on WhatsApp on the pretext of updating his gas bill.The lawyer approached the city cybercrime police on Wednesday, alleging that an unidentified caller contacted him around 8.46pm on Sept 15 and introduced himself as “Rohit Sharma”, purportedly an employee of Adani Gas.The caller allegedly told the lawyer that his gas bill payment had not gone through and offered to send a bill statement on WhatsApp. Shortly afterwards, another WhatsApp number sent him an APK file named “Adani Gas Bill Update.apk”. The profile reportedly displayed the name and image associated with Adani Gas.The lawyer clicked on the file, but said it did not download. He was then allegedly told during a WhatsApp call that an OTP would be required to open the application and that he should share it when received.Although the lawyer received an OTP, he did not disclose it and disconnected the call. Another person allegedly called him soon afterwards and asked him to complete the process. The lawyer refused, saying he would visit the gas company’s office personally to update his bill.Suspecting an attempted cyber fraud, he approached his bank the following morning and got the account frozen. Around two days later, he received another call from a person claiming to represent a telecom company and referring to a pending bill. The lawyer disconnected the call and checked his bank account.Bank officials allegedly informed him that two transactions of Rs 5,00,001 and Rs 2,90,011 had been made from his overdraft account on Sept 18. The transactions totalled Rs 7,90,012.The lawyer had earlier contacted the cybercrime helpline. The city cybercrime police subsequently registered a complaint.
