Pune: An elderly man from BT Kawade Road lodged a complaint with Mundhwa police, saying that online fraudsters, who posed as ECI officials, cheated him of Rs 8 lakh by sending him a fake SIR form online between Oct 1 and 3.The suspects allegedly installed remote access software in the victim’s cellphone to gain control via the bogus SIR correction form, an officer from Mundhwa police said.Smita Wasnik, senior inspector of Mundhwa police, said, “The elderly man was at home. He had already completed his SIR formalities. The fraudsters sent him a message on his cellphone. The message showed the sender’s title as the Election Commission of India.”“The elderly man opened the message, which stated that the complainant had wrongly mentioned his father’s name. The discrepancy came to notice during the SIR investigation,” the officer said.“The message also had a link to an online form, and the message requested the recipient to correct the mistake. When the complainant opened the form, it asked the complainant to fill in his ID card details, bank details, his PIN and other details. The complainant filled in the form and submitted it,” she said.Wasnik said, “It was not an online form of SIR correction. It was a link to remote access software. By filling and submitting the form, the complainant ended up sharing his banking credentials with the fraudsters.”Suspects then used his banking PIN to syphon off Rs 8 lakh.
