Cop loses ₹7.50L after downloading malicious APK file from Mohall Committee group

During verification, the cyber police found that the malicious file was sent by a group member who is well respected in the area

MUMBAI: A 36-year-old police constable from Trombay police station downloaded a malicious Android Application Package (APK) file shared in a Mohalla Committee WhatsApp group. Hackers used his credentials to take a loan and transferred the ₹7.58 lakh of the sanctioned loan to themselves.

The Trombay police registered a case against the unidentified hacker under charges of cyber fraud and criminal conspiracy.

The complainant, Constable Sachin Kashid, said he was part of a WhatsApp group named Mohalla Committee Trombay. The officers coordinated with community members in the jurisdiction through the group. On July 22, a message was sent in the group containing a link titled ‘RTO Challan.apk’ from an unsaved number. Assuming it could be something important, he clicked on the link but was quickly preoccupied with other work and ignored it.

Two hours later, he received a message stating a loan of ₹7.58 lakh was credited to his salary account. A few minutes later, he received two messages, one after another, stating ₹4,99,007.08 and ₹2,55,007.08 were debited from his account, respectively. Both transfers happened through a payment system identified as CCAHPPAY. Kashid realised that he had been duped by cyber fraud and immediately called the cyber helpline number 1930 to file his complaint.

On July 27, he followed up and learnt that the cyber police had not registered his complaint due to a technical error, so he filed a complaint again that day. The complainant alleged that the hacker also forged electronic documents in his name.

During verification, the cyber police found that the malicious file was sent by a group member who is well respected in the area. The police called him and got to know that his phone too had been compromised by a similar APK file, and he had no knowledge of sending the file in the group.

The Trombay police registered a case against the unidentified hacker under charges of cyber fraud and criminal conspiracy.