A 74-year-old Dehradun woman allegedly lost Rs 1.5 lakh after a caller posing as a Punjab National Bank pension representative persuaded her to install a malicious APK file.
A 74-year-old woman in Dehradun has lost Rs 1.5 lakh in a suspected cyber fraud after downloading an APK file sent by a caller who posed as a Punjab National Bank pension representative, according to Pioneer Edge News Service. The complainant, Chanchal Soni of Jakhan, said she received the call on October 23 while alone at home and was told to install the file via WhatsApp. Soon afterwards, she was informed that Rs 1.5 lakh had been transferred from her savings account through the National Electronic Funds Transfer system.
Soni later told police that when she contacted her bank, she learned the money had been debited without her permission. She believes her mobile phone was compromised after she installed the file, a method that has become increasingly common in banking-related scams across India. In Surat, a pesticide trader reportedly lost Rs 5 lakh after opening a malicious APK file disguised as a PNB app, while a school teacher in Pune is said to have lost Rs 9.4 lakh after installing a fake retirement plan file sent from an unknown source.
Cyber frauds involving fake banking apps have also surfaced in Hyderabad, where a pensioner allegedly lost Rs 5 lakh after installing a malicious file, though police later recovered the money. Separately, a retired banker in Ambala Cantonment was said to have lost Rs 2.78 lakh after clicking on a fraudulent link promoting a digital life certificate for pensioners. The pattern points to a broader scam playbook in which criminals use messaging apps, fake advertisements and pension-related promises to lure victims into granting access to their devices.
Punjab National Bank has previously warned customers about APK-based frauds and urged them not to open files or links received from unknown numbers. According to the bank’s guidance reported by the Financial Express, such files can give fraudsters remote access to a mobile phone, allowing them to steal credentials and trigger unauthorised transfers. In the Dehradun case, the woman also reported the matter to the national cyber crime helpline, 1930, and the Rajpur police have filed an FIR under provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
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