Pune: A 54-year-old purchase manager working with a private company in Balewadi lost Rs11.66 lakh to cybercrooks after unknowingly downloading malicious APK files disguised as an RTO traffic challan and a piped gas bill.On June 18, the manager received a call from a person claiming to be from a customer care department, asking whether he had made a credit card transaction of Rs1.86 lakh. The manager denied making the transaction and inquired whether any other transactions had been made using his credit card. He was shocked to learn that 14 transactions amounting to Rs11.66 lakh had been made using his credit card on the same day. He immediately blocked the card and lodged an online complaint. A case was later registered with the Sinhagad Road police.An officer from the Sinhagad Road police said the complainant had received several OTPs on June 18 while speaking to a friend on his cellphone. Although he did not share any OTP with anyone, the transactions still went through. “When he checked his cellphone, he found that he had earlier downloaded a traffic challan in Oct last year and a piped gas bill in May this year. Both were APK files that allowed the cybercrooks to gain access to his cellphone and banking details,” the officer said.Using the stolen banking and credit card details, the accused fraudulently carried out the transactions and duped the complainant of Rs11.66 lakh. “We have sought the details of the credit card transactions from the complainant’s bank. Further investigations are underway,” the officer said.
