: A 75-year-old Santacruz resident was duped of Rs 1 lakh after scammers allegedly gained remote access to his mobile phone through APK files sent under the pretext of correcting voter ID details.
AD Almeida, from Kalina, lodged a complaint with Vakola police on Tuesday after two unauthorised transfers of Rs 96,000 and Rs 4,000 from his bank account. Almeida called the number two or three times on Oct 30 but received no response. He then received a message from 06290803523, stating that all officers were busy and asking him to send his voter ID to the first number. Police said Almeida received a call at 4 pm on Nov 1 and was instructed to open WhatsApp and download two APK files purportedly to correct his name. The scammer then asked him to pay Rs 10.
A Vakola police officer said the bank’s nodal officer had been approached to freeze the account to which the money was transferred. Srinivas L, joint MD and joint CEO of 63SATS Cybertech, warned that scammers were exploiting govt’s voter-list update and appeal process. He called for banks, telecom companies and police to share intelligence and disrupt networks supplying mule accounts and rented SIM cards.