Vadodara: Two men lost a combined Rs 8.45 lakh to cyber fraudsters after clicking links or files related to e-challans sent to them on WhatsApp in separate incidents reported within a month.In the latest case, a trader lost nearly Rs 99,000 after clicking on a link related to an e-challan. Kirit Parmar, a resident of Ajwa Road, told police that he received a WhatsApp message on September 2 regarding an e-challan of Rs 1,000. He clicked on the link as it carried a description referring to ‘mParivahan’.Parmar said he subsequently received an OTP. On Sept 4, he opened the link again, following which he began receiving messages about transactions from his bank account. He soon realised that cyber fraudsters had siphoned nearly Rs 99,000 from his account and approached Bapod police to lodge a complaint.The incident came days after a shop owner from Gotri Road reported a similar fraud at the Cyber Crime police station.Mitesh Dave told police that he had received an APK file named ‘RTO Challan’ on WhatsApp and clicked on it. Within a couple of hours, he received messages informing him that incoming calls to his phone were being forwarded to other mobile numbers.Before Dave could understand what was happening, he began receiving alerts about money being debited from his bank account. Cyber fraudsters 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.
