In the second case, on January 5, a 31-year-old private employee downloaded the RTO challan.APK link received on WhatsApp and lost Rs 1.48 lakh.

Hyderabad: At least four people were allegedly duped of Rs 11.2 lakh in a traffic challan scam in Hyderabad by cyber fraudsters who circulated APK files on WhatsApp.

On January 17, a 35-year-old goldsmith from Ghansi Bazar received a WhatsApp message which read, “rto_echallan_apk” as the victim clicked the link, an application was downloaded on his phone. In no time, Rs 3.71 lakh were debited from the goldsmith’s account.

The victim approached the cybercrime police on January 20. In the second case, on January 5, a 31-year-old private employee downloaded the RTO challan.APK link received on WhatsApp and lost Rs 1.48 lakh. In the third case, a software engineer from Gajularamaram clicked an SMS link which claimed that a fine of Rs 500 was imposed on him for over speeding.

The victim entered his credit card details and OTP after opening the link and lost Rs 3.96 lakh in multiple transactions. In the fourth case, a 38-year-old data analyst from Manikonda lost Rs 1.78 lakh after clicking on the RTO challan.APK link.

Based on the complaints Hyderabad and Cyberabad police registered separate case under sections 318 (4) (cheating)and 319 (2) cheating by (impersonation) and launched an investigation into the matter.