Mumbai: A 66-year-old senior citizen from Borivli was allegedly duped of Rs 3.1 lakh in a new cyber fraud involving a fake Special Intensive Revision (SIR) form correction. The fraudster allegedly used a malicious link to gain access to the victim’s phone communications and subsequently siphoned money from his bank account.
The Borivli Police have registered an FIR against an unidentified person in connection with the incident.
According to the complaint, the incident began on August 27 when the senior citizen received a phone call from a man claiming that his father’s name was incorrectly spelt on his SIR form. The caller told him that the details needed to be corrected.
The victim handed the phone to his daughter-in-law, who spoke to the caller. The fraudster then sent a link and asked them to pay Rs 13 as a fee for correcting the name.
The scammer later continued the conversation through WhatsApp. His display picture reportedly carried references to the Election Commission of India, apparently to make the communication appear legitimate.
The senior citizen clicked on the link and entered the requested details. However, the Rs 13 payment failed. The fraudster subsequently sent another link and asked him to try again. When the second payment also failed, the caller asked the victim to send copies of his PAN card, Aadhaar card and voter ID through WhatsApp before disconnecting the call.
The following day, the victim received a notification indicating that his phone calls were being forwarded to another number. Although he deactivated the call-forwarding feature, it was allegedly activated again.
Suspecting something was wrong, the senior citizen informed his son, who contacted the bank. The family was then informed that Rs 3.1 lakh had been withdrawn fraudulently from the victim’s bank account.
A police complaint was subsequently filed, following which the Borivli Police registered an FIR against an unknown accused.
The incident highlights how cybercriminals are increasingly using government-related processes and official-looking profiles to gain the trust of victims. In this case, the fraudster allegedly combined impersonation, malicious links and call forwarding to facilitate the financial fraud.
Authorities have repeatedly advised citizens not to click on links received from unknown callers or share Aadhaar, PAN, banking or other sensitive information over messaging platforms. Any communication claiming to be from a government department should be independently verified through official channels before taking action.
