A man from Haryana has been arrested in connection with an online fraud in which a fake e-challan for a traffic violation was sent to a Bengal vehicle owner and ₹60,000 was stolen from his bank account.
The accused, Deepak Kumar, was arrested on Tuesday evening.
Investigating officers of Kolkata Police’s cyber wing said a link purportedly from “mParivahan” was sent to the Calcuttan, asking him to pay the fine. The money was deducted once the man clicked on the link.
The fraud prompted top police officers to warn motorists through a post on Kolkata Traffic Police’s social media page about fraudulent text messages seeking traffic fines.
The post reads: “Recently, there have been fraudulent attempts via SMS or WhatsApp claiming you have violated traffic laws. These scam messages ask you to click a malicious link to pay a fine. Remember, Kolkata Traffic Police never ask for fine payments through links in this manner.
“Clicking on such suspicious links can lead to the theft of your personal information and put your bank account at risk of being emptied. If you receive any suspicious messages, delete them immediately and do not click on any links. You should also report the matter to your local police station. Please stay alert and aware for your own safety and that of your family.”
mParivahan is a mobile app developed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to offer digital, legally recognised vehicle-related services. Users of the app can store virtual driving licences and registration certificates (RC), check the status of e-challans and access RTO services.
The police did not reveal the victim’s identity.
Last September, Kumar and at least six others started sending phishing messages containing links to a fake e-challan to the victim.
A case was drawn up at the cyber police station.
Kolkata Police contacted the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre for details.
It then appeared that a fraudulent “mParivahan” APK file was used as a link, and the file was hosted on a server linked to two IP addresses associated with a company named IntechDC Support Team.
IntechDC said that the server connected to the IP address was registered with a Gmail ID. The officials at Google reported that the email was accessed through an IP address belonging to SBL Telecom, Gurugram.
The SBL Telecom further confirmed that this IP was mapped to source another IP, registered in the name of Deepak Kumar, a resident of Jhajjar, Haryana.
Notices were sent to Kumar to come to Lalbazar.
At Lalbazar, Kumar allegedly provided vague and contradictory statements.
He was arrested on Tuesday evening after several rounds of questioning.