An elderly man in Ahmedabad’s Dariyapur area lost Rs 2.40 lakh after an unidentified caller allegedly posing as a Bank of Baroda employee sent him a malicious APK file on WhatsApp in the name of issuing a pension card and completing senior-citizen verification.
The 65-year-old complainant, identified as Gulamnabi Rasoolmiya Sheikh, lives near Nagina Pol in the Tambu Chowki area and works making purses in Kalupur’s Topiwala Pol. His bank account is with the Bank of Baroda branch in Dariyapur. According to the complaint, an unidentified man called him at around 9am on October 13 and introduced himself as Imran Hussain from the bank’s Mumbai branch.
The caller allegedly told Sheikh that the bank could issue him a pension card if he did not already have one. During the call, the man sent a file through WhatsApp named “BOB BANK SENIOR CITIZEN VERIFICATION APK”. Sheikh downloaded the file and allowed the permissions requested by the application, according to the police complaint.
The caller then allegedly instructed him to enter his name, mobile number, M-PIN and T-PIN into the application. Sheikh was told to keep the call active while the process was being completed. Shortly afterwards, four transactions were made from his account: Rs 1.80 lakh, Rs 25,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 10,000. The total amount withdrawn was Rs 2.40 lakh.
The caller allegedly disconnected after Sheikh said he would report the matter to the cyber-crime authorities. The victim became aware of the fraud after noticing the debits and went to the bank to verify the transactions. He subsequently contacted the cyber-crime helpline 1930 and filed a complaint at Dariyapur police station against the unidentified caller.
Dariyapur police have registered a case and begun an investigation. The complaint places the alleged fraud within a wider pattern of impersonation in which criminals use the names of banks, pension services and senior-citizen verification to persuade victims to install applications and disclose banking credentials.
The case also highlights the risks created when banking processes are shifted to informal digital interactions over messaging platforms. In this instance, the alleged caller used a bank identity, a pension-related service and a senior-citizen verification claim to establish credibility before requesting access to the victim’s phone and financial information.
Police have not publicly identified the caller or disclosed whether the withdrawn funds have been frozen or recovered. The investigation will determine how the APK file was used, where the transactions were routed and whether the caller was connected to other cyber-fraud cases. The complaint remains the basis of the reported allegations as the inquiry continues.
