India: Retired Andhra Pradesh teacher loses Rs2.1 million in WhatsApp fraud
Cybercriminals hacked her phone and withdrew the money, police say
Annamayya (Andhra Pradesh): A retired teacher from Andhra Pradesh lost around Rs 21 lakh (Rs2.1 million) from her bank account after she opened a link sent via WhatsApp from an unknown number on Monday.
Varalakshmi, a resident of Annamayya district in Andhra Pradesh, became a victim of cyber fraud, police said.
According to Varalakshmi, she received the message on WhatsApp with a link attached to it. She clicked on the link and since then several bank transactions of money withdrawals have been made by some alleged cybercriminal who hacked into her phone.
Varalakshmi filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime Police.
According to II-Town Circle Inspector (CI) Muralikrishna: “Varalakshmi of Reddeppanaidu Colony in Madanapalle town of Annamayya district received a WhatsApp message and she opened it several times. Later she got messages that the money has been deducted from her account. When she was shocked and showed it to the bank officials, they said that her account was hacked. She lodged a complaint on cybercrime toll-free number 1930 on Saturday”
Cybercriminals hacked her phone and other details and thus have withdrawn around Rs2.1 million, police said.
A similar incident took place when “Rs12 lakh [Rs.1.2 millon] was withdrawn from the account of Gnanaprakash, a software employee from Madanapalle were stolen”.
The II-Town police station registered a case.