Mira Bhayandar: Cyber criminals are devising new methods to cheat unsuspecting people by hacking their mobile phones through malicious links. A 38-year-old techie from Mira Road working as a team manager for a laptop trading firm realised this the hard way after the cyber crooks gained access to his device and obtained a personal loan amounting more than Rs 14.90 lakh without his knowledge or consent.
About The Case
In his complaint to the police, the techie stated that he received a link with .apk imitating the name of his bank. He clicked on the link which failed to open following which he received a video call by a person claiming to be the representative of the bank who informed that his Know Your Customer (KYC) details needed an update.
Suspecting something fishy, the complainant replied that he would personally reach out to the branch for getting the KYC updated and disconnected the call. Seconds later, his phone got completely hanged for nearly 30 minutes. When the phone re-started, the complainant realised that not only Rs 1,49,999 was deducted from his credit card, but the cyber crooks had availed a personal loan amounting Rs 14.90 lakh on his savings account.
This despite the fact that he had not applied for any such loan. The loan amount which was credited had been immediately withdrawn via four fraudulent transactions. The cyber crooks had apparently gained access to the bank’s mobile application and applied for a quick loan. Once the loan was approved and the money was deposited in the victim’s account, the cyber crooks who had access to the account on the mobile app immediately transferred the amount to different bank accounts.
The complainant collectively lost Rs 16.40 lakh to the evil designs of the unidentified cyber-crooks. An offence under the relevant sections of the BNS and Information Technology Act was registered at the Naya Nagar police station in Mira Road on 22 October. Further investigations were on.
