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A 50-year-old resident of Horamavu in Bengaluru was allegedly cheated of nearly ₹1 lakh by fraudsters posing as bank officials through a fake eKYC verification process conducted over WhatsApp, according to a complaint lodged with the police. The victim received a WhatsApp call from a person claiming to be a relationship officer from his bank, who insisted that he complete an urgent eKYC verification process to prevent his bank account from being blocked.
The fraudster allegedly pressured the victim to share his mobile screen and follow multiple instructions simultaneously, including profile modifications and OTP-based verifications, and also asked him to download a face-recognition application as part of the process.
Though the victim refused to install an APK file shared by the caller, the fraudsters are suspected to have accessed sensitive banking information and OTPs during the screen-sharing session, breaking the victim’s fixed deposit and recurring deposit and transferring the funds into his savings account before siphoning off the money through unauthorised transactions.
The police have registered a case and are investigating the incident, with the East Division cybercrime police advising the public not to share mobile screens, OTPs, or banking details with unknown callers, even if they appear to represent legitimate financial institutions. The court will not be involved in this case immediately, but the police will continue to investigate and may make arrests in the coming days.