SIR fraud alert! Lessons from Bengaluru man's ₹3.49 lakh mistake — How fake ECI officials may scam you; how to be safe
An 82-year-old man in Bengaluru was duped of ₹3.49 lakh in the name of verifying the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) form. Experts weigh in on how to stay safe from these scams.
An 82-year-old resident of Bengaluru, R Parthasarathy, lost ₹3.49 lakh to fraudsters posing as Election Commission of India (ECI) officials during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list. The fraudsters contacted him, claiming his SIR verification was incomplete and demanded payment for verification. He was further directed to download a fake mobile application and provided a QR code via WhatsApp, which enabled the scammers to access his mobile phone and banking details.
After realizing the scam, Parthasarathy reported the incident to the police. Cyberabad Police and cybercrime expert Rakshit Tandon warned against such scams, emphasizing that SIR verification should only be done through official government channels and not through social media platforms like WhatsApp. They advised people not to share personal information or make payments to unknown callers and to avoid clicking on suspicious links or downloading unknown apps.
Written by urgent.news from Live Mint's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
