Scamsters use SIR to target anxious elders in Mumbai

Cybercriminals have hit upon a new, highly effective scam by weaponizing civic anxiety and targeting citizens’ fears of being excluded from official voter registries. Posing as Election Commission officials, scammers are calling or texting unsuspecting citizens with a warning that their personal information requires an immediate correction under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) framework. Victims are coerced into clicking on unsolicited links or installing malicious APK (Android Package Kit) files, that drain their bank accounts by giving scammers remote access to their banking information. Senior citizens appear to be prime targets with multiple such cases being reported. In Deonar recently, a former college principal lost Rs 17 lakh after a fraudster, using an official election commission logo as a display picture, claimed that his father’s name was incorrectly listed in the electoral roll and needed to be immediately corrected. The caller introduced himself as “election commissioner Chandrashekhar” and got the former principal to install an APK file. Thereafter, two apps, disguised as voter verification tools, popped up on his phone. The former principal was trying to pay a nominal fee of Rs 5 for the correction process when Rs 17 lakh was debited from his bank accounts. In a separate case, a 77-year-old retired doctor from Trombay lost Rs 6.7 lakh after filling up a form sent by an “ECI officer.” The retired doctor was told there was a mismatch between his name and that of his father in the electoral rolls and he was required to submit personal information in an “SIR form. Cybersecurity expert Nikhil Mahadeshwar said that bad actors deliberately manufacture a false crisis by warning victims that their names would be excluded from the electoral rolls. Once the victim gets anxious, the scammer offers an immediate solution in the form of downloading an app or APK file. Manufactured panic drives anxious individuals to download compromised software and lose funds. In an incident that demonstrates the personalised nature of these frauds, a retired infrastructure company executive from Chembur lost money after being asked to update her new residential address through a link, as part of the SIR process. As she had moved homes, she was convinced that the call was genuine. She ended up installing a malicious APK file and lost Rs 11.2 lakh.

Source : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/scamsters-use-sir-to-target-anxious-elders-in-mumbai/articleshow/133446460.cms