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Bengaluru ‘Traffic Fine’ Phishing Links Drain Rs 2.78 Lakh as Police File FIRs

Officials urge caution, noting traffic fines are never collected via payment links.

Overview

  • Whitefield police registered two FIRs on January 4 after victims clicked fake challan links and later saw Rs 1,16,738 and Rs 1,61,270 debited from their credit cards.
  • The victims were identified as software engineer Anurag Kumar Pandey, 27, and private firm employee Tarani Kumar Sharma, 38.
  • One complainant said he received an OTP he did not share, yet the transaction went through, raising concerns about more sophisticated fraud tactics.
  • Investigators are tracing suspects using transaction trails and technical evidence, and noted both compromised cards were issued by the same bank.
  • Police link the incidents to a broader trend of traffic-fine scams, including recent APK-based attacks in Bengaluru and a separate Mumbai case in which malware enabled OTP interception and Rs 2 lakh in charges.