B'luru, beware of these new scams in cyber world

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: Launching a probe on yet another form of cyber crime, City Police Commissioner B Dayananda has issued a warning against the ongoing fake e-challan scam in the city.

According to the information shared by the Bengaluru Police, the frauds have now started trapping the citizens by sending a fake URL link which is similar to the Parivahan e-challan portal.

In order to spread the awareness, Police Commissioner Dayananda had shared a post on 'X' informing the netizens about this scam.

"If you receive a link for a traffic challan, don't click these links. By clicking upon these links for payment, fraudsters can hack your bank account," the post shared by Dayananda read.

According to the cyber crime police, fraudsters only need a click on one of these bogus URLs to gain access to the user's bank account which means anytime a vehicle owner clicks on the link and inputs his or her bank account number and credit card information, fraudsters hack the person's phone first and then empty their account of all available funds.

Fake e-Challan scam

The Bengaluru police also informed that the text message sent by the scammers will end with a link.

For example, "Your challan No. is XXXXXXXX for PB08DJXXXX having a total challan amount as Rs 500. For online payment visit: https:// echallanparivahan. in/ you can also contact the RTO office for disposal of challan. Regards, RTO."

This message contains a fake URL link which resembles that of Parivahan.

Link Identification

To help the citizens have a better understanding, the Police Commissioner shared an example to show the difference between a real e-challan link and a fake one.

It is to be noted that the official e-challan link will always end with ".gov. in." For instance, "https:// echallan.parivahan.gov. in/."

However, the fake challan link won't have the "gov.in." For example, "https://echallan. parivahan.in/" The citizens are advised to file a complaint if they fall victim to the scam.

The police can then halt the withdrawal of funds from the victim's account as soon as the complaint is filed.