In another case of cyber fraud, scammers managed to defraud a techie of Rs 13 lakh. The victim, who worked as a senior technical officer in the Defense Research and Development Organization in Pune, was contacted by unknown persons regarding an alleged KYC update linked to his bank account. However, as soon as he followed the instructions, he lost his money from his bank account.

According to the case reported by The Indian Express, the victim, a 57-year-old technical specialist in DRDO, lodged a complaint at the Yerwada police station this week. In his complaint, the victim revealed that in the third week of November, he received a WhatsApp message from an unknown sender, purportedly from a public sector bank. The message falsely claimed that his KYC details were overdue for update and warned that his bank account would be frozen if he failed to take immediate action. Along with the message, the sender also attached a file which they instructed him to download.

Thinking it was a genuine message from the bank to remind users about KYC updates, the victim clicked on the attachment and downloaded the file to his smartphone. However, this file contained a malware application specifically designed by scammers to provide remote access to their devices. Soon after downloading the file, the officer received multiple one-time passwords (OTPs) on his phone. However, since the victim was not conducting any transactions on his behalf at that time, he ignored these OTP messages.

Following the messages, the scammers took advantage of the remote access given by the malicious application to withdraw Rs 12.95 lakh from his bank account. It was only after seeing the message about the unauthorized transaction that the victim immediately contacted Pune City Cyber ​​Police Station to report the crime. After preliminary investigation, an FIR was registered at Yerwada police station.

According to the police, this is not an isolated case where a person lost money after downloading an unknown file. In fact, this case is another example of fraud in which cyber criminals usually trick victims into downloading files or applications that allow unauthorized access to their devices. Once access is gained, criminals can manipulate banking and payment applications to drain victims’ accounts.

Considering the seriousness of the increasing cases of online fraud in India, the Cyber ​​Cell and Police have issued a strong advisory regarding measures to stay safe from the long-running cyber scams.

To keep yourself safe, here are some safety precautions:

– First and foremost, never respond to messages or emails from unknown numbers or addresses claiming to be from banks or service providers.

– If you receive an attachment file or link from an unknown sender, do not click on it until you check who the sender is.

– Always pay attention to the OTP received on your phone, especially if you are not doing any transaction.