Mumbai: A retired college principal from Deonar lost Rs 17 lakh on Aug 8 after a scammer posing as an Election Commission official forced him to download an APK file on the pretext of updating his Special Intensive Revision (SIR) through an online form, warning him he could not vote in the next election if he did not comply. He is the first victim of an SIR scam using an APK file to gain remote access to his mobile device and steal data.The East Region cyber police station registered an FIR against three unknown persons on Aug 10 after the retired principal received alerts about five fraudulent transactions carried out on Aug 8. The caller identified himself as an Electoral Registration Officer from the Election Commission’s office and said the name of the victim’s father was incorrectly written in the voter list and their team was calling everyone to fill the SIR form to update it before the last date which was on Aug 8.A cyber police officer said the senior citizen lost money after the scammer gained remote access to his mobile phone once he downloaded the link and was asked to transfer Rs 5 as charges towards the form to complete the SIR submission. The five fund transfers were credited to accounts in a private bank and two nationalised banks.He got a call from one “Chandrashekar from the Election Commission”. Later, one Santosh Gupta from the Election Commission office called him and hung up on learning the complainant had entered his banking details online. The victim received two apps, Online Voter Verification and Device Protection on his phone and realised he had been duped.
