A Chandigarh resident lost ₹2.86 lakh after opening a WhatsApp file labelled “RTO TRAFFIC CHALLAN”, triggering an OTP and a series of unauthorised transactions on his bank cards, according to a complaint filed with the cybercrime police.
Ambrish Kumar, who lives in Industrial Area Phase 1, received the message from an unknown sender around noon on August 6, 2026. About an hour later, he received an unsolicited SMS containing a one-time password linked to identity authentication, followed by multiple transaction alerts.
The complaint stated that four unauthorised transactions totalling ₹2.5 lakh were carried out on Kumar’s IndusInd Bank credit card. A further transaction of slightly more than ₹34,000 was made through his debit card at a point-of-sale terminal recorded at Muthoot Finance in Mumbai.
Kumar told the police that he first attempted to contact the bank’s customer service. After being placed on hold, he went to the IndusInd Bank branch in Sector 8, Chandigarh, to report the suspected fraud, request that both cards be blocked and seek reversal of the transactions.
The debit-card transaction was recorded at about 2.10pm, while Kumar was inside the branch submitting his complaint, according to the police report. He subsequently contacted the national cybercrime helpline 1930 and filed a complaint at the Sector 17 cybercrime police station.
He also emailed the bank’s customer service department to formally document the incident. In his complaint, Kumar asked the authorities to trace and freeze the transferred funds and preserve CCTV footage, system logs, employee audit trails and precise transaction timestamps connected with the disputed payments.
The case has been registered against unidentified suspects. Cybercrime police said an investigation was under way to identify those responsible and trace the transactions. The report does not establish whether the money has been recovered or whether any arrests have been made.
The incident also places attention on the way public-service terminology can be used to make digital fraud appear credible. The file’s reference to an RTO traffic challan presented the message as an official transport-related communication, while the subsequent OTP and transaction alerts indicated that the victim’s banking credentials or card access had been compromised. The police investigation will determine how the fraud was executed and whether the transaction trail can identify the perpetrators.
