Hyderabad: A retired Lieutenant Colonel residing in Secunderabad was defrauded of ₹1.2 lakh after falling victim to a cyber scam involving a fake traffic challan, police said on Tuesday.
According to Hyderabad Cybercrime ACP Shiva Maruthi, the ex-serviceman received a WhatsApp message on July 6 containing a link claiming to be from the ‘e-parivahan’ portal. The message alleged that the recipient’s vehicle had violated traffic rules and a penalty of ₹1,000 was due.
Believing the message to be genuine, the officer clicked the link. Within minutes, ₹1,20,409 was siphoned off in two transactions from his SBI credit card.
Realising the fraud, he lodged a complaint with the cybercrime police. Authorities have registered a case and initiated an investigation into the phishing attempt. Officials have warned the public not to click on unsolicited links related to fines or payments.
