Bengaluru man loses ₹5.6 lakh in cyber scam through fake traffic police app

A Bengaluru resident lost ₹5.6 lakh in a cyber scam after unknowingly downloading a fraudulent mobile application disguised as an official Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) platform.

The 46-year-old victim, residing in Byatarayanapura, received a WhatsApp message on February 20 from an unknown sender, falsely claiming that a traffic violation had been recorded against his vehicle. The message urged him to download an app named "VAHAN PARIVAHAN" via a link, supposedly to check CCTV evidence of the offense. Since the registration number mentioned matched his own, he assumed it was legitimate and installed the app.

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Within 24 hours, unauthorized transactions totaling ₹5.6 lakh were made from his two credit cards. Realizing his phone had been compromised, he filed a complaint with the West CEN police on February 22.

Investigators suspect the app was embedded with malware, likely a Remote Access Trojan (RAT), enabling cybercriminals to access sensitive banking details. Authorities have since warned the public that BTP does not send challan-related messages through WhatsApp or SMS.

Coincidentally, on the same day the victim received the scam message, BTP had issued a social media alert about similar fraudulent schemes. Officials advised residents to rely only on official sources, such as the BTP website or the Astram app, to check traffic violations and avoid downloading suspicious APK files.