Mumbai: Man loses Rs 1.92 lakh in APK-based cyber fraud, money recovered

Sohrab Anklesaria, 55, Santacruz West resident and complainant. Pics/By Special Arrangement

Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL) customers, beware of SMSes from cyber fraudsters portraying themselves as gas suppliers.

Sohrab Anklesaria, 55, a resident of Santacruz West, became a victim of cyber theft of Rs 1.92 lakh on Tuesday, February 17, but timely reporting of the matter to the Cyber Fraud Helpline, 1930, and Santacruz police station helped him recover the sum in two days.

Anklesaria alleged that he had received an SMS purportedly from MGL claiming that last month's payment hadn't been ‘updated'. He added that his accountant subsequently installed an APK file at the instructions of a person describing himself as an MGL officer. The latter's number had been included in the SMS.

The SMS received by the victim on February 17

February 19
Day unauthorised transaction was reversed

VictimSpeak

‘The fraudsters, through the installed app, must have accessed my phone remotely. Around Tuesday evening, they tried to transfer funds from my credit card but failed due to transaction limits. However, they still managed to transfer Rs 1.92 lakh from my password-protected current account'
Sohrab Anklesaria, complainant

The police investigation

Anklesaria approached the police on Tuesday evening. After the FIR was registered, the police took the transaction ID from Anklesaria and sent an email to the receiving merchant to freeze the funds, and the latter responded to the request within an hour

How such frauds unfold

1 Fraudsters don't include suspicious links or files in the initial SMS, most probably to avoid raising suspicions
2 Instead, the content of the SMS is designed to instil a sense of fear and urgency in the receiver, and to capitalise on that, the phone number of a fake official is included
3 The official instructs the victim to perform an action that leaves them unsecured, like installing APK files
4 The newly installed app shows a meagre pending amount, such as R5, motivating the victim complete the process just to be done with it
5 Even if a person doesn't go ahead with the payment, chances of cyber fraud are still high due to the installation of the file

Police advisory

Cyber fraudsters have access to huge consumer data. The best practice to keep oneself secure from threats like these is to avoid responding to phishing links, third-party APK files and scam calls