Cyber fraud in Bengaluru: 82 year old loses Rs 3.49 lakh to fake ECI officials in SIR verification scam

New Delhi: Cyber criminals claiming to be officers from the Election Commission of India (ECI) have stolen Rs 3.49 lakh from an 82-year-old man. The scammers tricked him into downloading a fake mobile app by saying his Special Intensive Revision (SIR) voter form was incomplete.

The elderly man, R Parthasarathy, lives in Rustum Bagh in east Bengaluru. He got a phone call from a stranger pretending to be an ECI officer. The caller told him his voter details were not updated yet and warned that his voter card would stop working if he didn’t fix it immediately.

How the scammers stole the money

To fix his voter form, the caller asked Parthasarathy to pay a tiny fee of Rs 5. He told the elderly man to download a mobile app to finish the work. When the Rs 5 payment did not go through, the caller sent a QR code over WhatsApp, saying it was needed to complete the process.

Police said the fake app and QR code allowed the scammers to control the victim’s phone and steal his banking details. The fraudsters then used his credit card to make unauthorized transactions and stole Rs 3.49 lakh.

Police investigation started

When Parthasarathy realized his money was stolen, he went to the Jeevan Beema Nagar police station and also called the National Cyber Crime Helpline.

Police confirmed that a formal case has been registered and an investigation is currently underway.

Curated by- Ramansh Dhadwal