Cybercrooks use Parivahan route to dupe man of 3.5L

Bengaluru: A 44-year-old man was recently bilked of Rs 3.5 lakh by cybercriminals who posed as officials from the transport department and asked him to pay a fine for violating traffic regulations.
Konjengbam Bikim Chandra, architect with a private firm, told police that the miscreants siphoned off Rs 3.5 lakh from his accounts between 1.30pm and 3.30pm on April 24.
According to his complaint, the miscreants sent him a WhatsApp message on April 24. It read: “We regret to inform you that a traffic violation has been recorded against your vehicle. Specifically, our records indicate that your vehicle was observed exceeding the speed limit. To verify and view evidence related to this violation, please access the Vahan Parivahan mobile application. This application will provide you with detailed information, including photographic evidence of the violation. Yours sincerely, Regional Transport Office in Bengaluru (RTO), Karnataka.”
The message also contained a challan number, his car registration number with the date of violation as March 23. He believed it was genuine as it mentioned the registration number correctly. The miscreants also sent him a mobile app link to make the payment. He clicked on the link and later, Rs 3,57,360 was transferred out of his multiple bank accounts. He realised the fraud after receiving messages about the amounts deducted. Marathahalli police said Chandra’s phone was hacked after he clicked the link. Chandra received repeated calls from an unknown number a day before his phone was hacked. He avoided them but later, received it only to find it was blank. He suspects the hackers might have called him.
According to police, cybercriminals had sent similar messages to several people in the name of Bengaluru traffic police in January and February this year. They had developed a few mobile applications using its name. Consequently, traffic police registered a case with cybercrime police and got the fake apps removed.
Now, the criminals have returned with fake apps in the name of Parivahan. M-Parivahan is a government app under the road transport ministry.