Cyber crime is increasing day by day in the city. In a recent case that came to the light revealed that now fraudsters send fake e-challan of traffic violation to vehicle owners and dupe them. In this case, the victim attempted to use the Vahan Parivahan app—a designated app—to settle an e-challan fine but instead lost INR 50,000.
In an official police complaint, a 41-year-old man claimed that his father had gotten a text message on his mobile telling him to pay an e-challan fine for breaking traffic laws. To complete the payment, the recipient was directed to an app link in the message. After the software was downloaded, the complainant's account was debited.
New Cyber Crime Targetting Vehicle Owners:
Ambernath, Thane resident M.R. Bhosale is the complainant in this case. According to the police complaint, Bhosale's father has an auto-rickshaw business in the Ghatkopar area of Mumbai. The complainant's father informed him on March 12 that he had received a text message about his vehicle from an unknown number, alerting him that a traffic violation ticket had been issued against his vehicle.
The message read as, “Dear Vehicle Owner/Driver, this is to inform you that you have been issued a traffic challan for the mentioned violation. To confirm your identity and view the evidence related to this violation, please install the Vahan Parivahan app. The app will provide you with the necessary details, including the photo evidence of the violation. Sincerely, Panvel Traffic Police.”
A download link for the mentioned app was included in the message. The complainant attempted to download the aforementioned application using his father's phone and the provided link to see how much fine money was outstanding on his auto-rickshaw, but the download was unsuccessful. He then forwarded the aforementioned message to his number and downloaded the application on his phone.
Once the victim downloaded the app and began receiving OTPs on his phone number. After learning about OTP texts he promptly uninstalled the app from his mobile phone. When the victim looked at his bank statement the following day, he was stunned to see that five fraudulent withdrawals of INR 10,000 each had been made from his account. After realising he had been tricked, the victim went to the police and last week, and filed a First Information Report (FIR).
A case has been filed by the police under the Information Technology Act's sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personating someone using a computer resource). In his complaint, the victim gave the police information about the mobile number, fake link, and fraudulent transaction data.
The fake message contains the following payment link: https://echallanparivahan.in. Scammers utilise URLs that look identical, so it's easy to overlook the differences. However, keep in mind that official websites, like https://echallan.parivahan.
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