A Western Railway officer in Ahmedabad lost ₹73,000 after allegedly falling victim to a cyber fraudster while trying to get a refund of ₹448 for an online order.
Pradeep Kumar, an office superintendent with Western Railway and a resident of Khokhra, had ordered a ladies’ dress worth ₹448 through the Meesho app. Although the amount was deducted, the order was not confirmed, prompting him to make the payment again.
To get a refund, Kumar searched for Meesho’s customer care number on Google and called a number listed in the search results. The person who answered claimed to be from customer care and said the refund would be processed through WhatsApp.
The caller then contacted Kumar on WhatsApp, made a video call and asked him to share his phone screen. After checking his account details, the fraudster allegedly sent an APK file through WhatsApp and asked Kumar to install it.
Kumar downloaded the application and granted the requested permissions, following which his phone screen became unresponsive. After restarting the phone, he checked Google Pay and found that ₹73,000 had been withdrawn from his State Bank of India account through three transactions.
Realising that he had been cheated, Kumar immediately contacted the cybercrime helpline 1930. Khokhra police have registered a case against the unidentified person linked to the WhatsApp number and launched an investigation.
Cybercriminals use ‘SEO poisoning’ to target customers
Cybercriminals are increasingly using search-engine optimisation techniques to push fake customer care numbers into search results for popular e-commerce platforms and banks. Customers who call these numbers believing them to be genuine may be directed to WhatsApp, remote-access tools or malicious APK files, which can give fraudsters access to their devices and bank accounts.