Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
Cyber criminals sent an APK file on WhatsApp in the name of a bank and took control of a mobile phone, siphoning off ₹2 lakh from the bank account of a MSEDCL employee. The gang even placed a purchase order using this money on a national-level online portal. However, the cyber police promptly tracked the transaction and contacted the concerned company, got the transaction halted and successfully saved the complainant’s ₹2 lakh. The victim later met Superintendent of Police (SP) Dr Vinaykumar Rathod and thanked the police for their swift action.
Sitaram Rameshwar Rathod, who works with MSEDCL, received a phone call on January 17. The caller claimed to be speaking about insurance for his credit card and asked him to install an APK file sent in the name of SBI Bank. As the file carried the SBI name, Rathod installed it. Within a few hours, cyber criminals took control of his mobile phone and, in four transactions, siphoned off ₹2 lakh using his credit card.
Rathod immediately approached the Rural Cyber Police Station and lodged a complaint, following which the police launched an urgent investigation. The cyber police promptly traced the bank account to which the money had been transferred and examined all subsequent transactions from that account.
Traced till the final transaction
During the investigation, it was found that the money had been transferred to a bank account in Andhra Pradesh and used to place a large order worth ₹2 lakh through an online portal based in Telangana. A few hours before the order was to be dispatched, the police contacted the company and informed it via an official email that the order had been placed using money obtained through a cyber crime. Acting on this information, the company cancelled the order and stopped the transaction. As a result, the police succeeded in freezing the amount in time and saving the ₹2 lakh.
The operation was carried out by a team led by cyber police station inspector Sanjay Deshmukh and API Vijaysingh Jonwal.