Bhubaneswar: Cybercriminals duped a teacher in Odisha’s Jeypore of Rs 8.97 lakh, which he had painstakingly saved for his cancer treatment.
According to sources, 47-year-old Sadananda Samantaray, a teacher of Turudiput village under Jeypore block, fell victim to the scam on Sunday evening after he received a WhatsApp message urging him to download an APK file supposedly related to an RTO traffic challan. The unsuspecting teacher clicked on the link, giving fraudsters remote access to his phone and bank account linked with HDFC Bank’s Tankua branch.
The fraud came to light the following day when he sent a family member to the bank to withdraw cash and was informed that the account balance had dropped to zero. Bank officials confirmed that Rs 8.97 lakh had been siphoned off in multiple transactions.
His cancer surgery was scheduled for Wednesday.
A similar fraud was also reported from Tankua village under Jeypore Sadar police limits, where a tailor lost Rs 1.83 lakh to the scammer.
Koraput Cyber Police Station IIC Bhabani Pradhan told the media that two separate cases have been registered based on the complaints filed by the victims. “Investigation is underway and we are making all efforts to trace the accused and recover the money,” he said, while urging the public to exercise extreme caution with unsolicited messages.
Earlier this month, Angul Police arrested a man from Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, accused of cheating a local resident of Rs 7.2 lakh through a malicious APK file named “RTO Challan” in October.
