Vadodara: A businessman from the city lost more than Rs 1 lakh after falling victim to a cyberfraud involving a fake wedding invitation sent via WhatsApp. The victim, Kamlesh Patel, a resident of R C Dutt Road, has lodged a complaint at the Akota police station.According to Patel’s complaint, he received a WhatsApp message from a relative on Aug 9, carrying what appeared to be a wedding invitation card. Believing the message to be genuine, he clicked on the link and opened the attached APK file. Soon after, his phone began restarting and subsequently hung several times.Patel contacted his relative to verify the invitation and learnt that he had not sent him any such message. However, on Aug 25, a similar wedding invitation message was sent from his own WhatsApp account to several of his relatives. He told police that he had not sent the messages.Suspecting that his phone had been compromised, Patel immediately checked his bank account and discovered that fraudsters had siphoned more than Rs 1 lakh from it. Police said the accused had gained access to his phone and obtained sensitive banking information, including his account details.In a similar case reported a few days earlier, Mitesh Dave had lodged a complaint at the Cybercrime police station after receiving an APK file titled ‘RTO challan’ on WhatsApp. He clicked on the file, following which he received messages informing him that incoming calls to his phone were being forwarded to other mobile numbers.Within hours, Dave began receiving alerts about unauthorised debits from his bank account. The fraudsters allegedly siphoned more than Rs 7.46 lakh from his account. He immediately contacted his bank and requested that all transactions be blocked before approaching the police.Cybercrime officials have been conducting awareness campaigns urging citizens not to click on suspicious links or APK files received through messaging platforms, as such files can be used by fraudsters to gain unauthorised access to mobile phones and financial information.
