A 35-year-old car driver from Jogeshwari West in Mumbai was allegedly duped of Rs 1.95 lakh after unknowingly downloading a fraudulent mobile application shared on a WhatsApp group.

The complainant, Shoaib Mohammad Ghulam Hussain Sheikh, a resident of Gulshan Nagar, told police that on August 28, around 9.30 am, he received alerts of three suspicious debits from his bank account: Rs 59,935, Rs 99,000, and Rs 37,000.

He immediately contacted the bank to block his account and later approached the police with a transaction statement. During checks, police found a hidden application named Traffic Challan App on his phone.

Sheikh then recalled that on August 21, a man named Aftab Alam had shared the app on a WhatsApp group titled Neral Vagni Badlapur. He had downloaded it without suspicion. Investigators believe the app gave fraudsters access to his bank details, enabling them to siphon funds.

The victim has since filed a cyber fraud complaint through the national helpline 1930.

Oshiwara police have registered a case under Sections 318(4) (cheating by personation) and 319(3) (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, along with Sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Police are now probing the role of Aftab Alam and other unknown persons in the scam.

This article first appeared on Mid Day