Rajkot: A 42-year-old farmer and diamond polisher from Junagadh lost Rs 6.56 lakh in a cyberfraud after scammers posing as bank officials convinced him to install an APK file on his mobile phone under the pretext of updating his PAN card details.The victim, Narendra Pethani, a resident of Gokuldham Society, maintains an account with a nationalised bank. According to the complaint, Pethani received a call on May 14 from an unidentified number. The caller introduced himself as a bank employee and gained his confidence by accurately quoting his bank account details and current balance.Believing the caller to be genuine, Pethani followed his instructions when he was told that his PAN card details needed to be urgently updated in the bank’s records. Soon after, an APK file was sent to his smartphone via WhatsApp from another number.Following the caller’s directions, Pethani installed the application. Shortly thereafter, his mobile phone and banking access were compromised, allowing the fraudsters to siphon off Rs 6.56 lakh through five separate transactions.Pethani immediately alerted the authorities by reporting the incident to the cybercrime helpline 1930.Investigators found that the fraudsters did not rely on conventional OTP-based deception. Instead, they first established credibility by revealing accurate information about the victim’s bank account and balance, before using the malicious APK file to gain access to his device and banking credentials.Preliminary investigations by the cyber police revealed that the stolen funds were routed through multiple credit cards, several bank accounts and an account with a payments bank, in an apparent attempt to complicate the money trail.
