Mumbai cyber fraud: Businessman loses Rs 9.71 lakh to fake ‘RTO Challan’ app

Mumbai: Cybercriminals siphoned 9.71 lakh rupees from a Mumbai businessman’s bank account using a malicious mobile application disguised as an official traffic citation, police said Tuesday.

The victim, a chemical merchant based in the Goregaon suburb, discovered three unauthorised withdrawals from his account last month. Despite the substantial depletion of funds, the businessman reported receiving no SMS alerts or email notifications from his financial institution.

An investigation by Bangur Nagar Police revealed the breach began when the victim received a file labelled "RTO Challan.apk" via WhatsApp. The message appeared to originate from a known contact, posing as one of his customers, an official said.

Investigators found that the installation of the software granted hackers full remote access to the victim's smartphone. Using this control, the perpetrators operated their banking applications and funnelled the money into unknown accounts across two separate banks.

"The cause of the crash is not yet clear," authorities noted in similar recent cases, though they confirmed that hackers often use such access to intercept one-time passwords and suppress transaction alerts.

Police have registered a formal case against unidentified persons and are analysing WhatsApp metadata and bank statements to trace the stolen funds.

With inputs from PTI