Forest official loses Rs 9.9 lakh to online scam

BENGALURU: Fraudsters seem to be constantly coming up with new way to steal money. The latest technique is sending marriage invitations in electronic form.

Ramesh Babu, who works in the Forest Department in Bengaluru, received a marriage e-invitation from an unknown number on the evening of July 13. Thinking it might be from some friend, Ramesh Babu opened the invitation out of curiosity.

As soon as he opened it, he realised it was an APK file and ignored it. Within a few minutes of this, messages started coming in that money was being deducted from officer Ramesh Babu’s account. By the time he checked what was happening, around Rs 9,96,658 had already been debited in seven transactions.

The officer has filed a complaint at the North Division Cyber Police Station In this regard and further investigation is under way.