Fake ECI-officer dupes 82-year-old Bengaluru man of Rs 3 lakh

An 82-year-old Bengaluru man, R Parthasarathy from Jeevanbhimanagar, was defrauded of Rs 3 lakh by a fraudster posing as an Election Commission of India (ECI) official during the Special Intensive Revision process.

The scam began with a call on July 30 from someone claiming to be an ECI official, who told Parthasarathy that his SIR form was rejected and a new form was needed.

The fraudster sent a link for Parthasarathy to fill in personal details, then asked for Rs 5 as process expenses; the credit card transaction failed, but a QR code was sent for payment.

While waiting to pay, Parthasarathy discovered that Rs 3.4 lakh had been transferred from his account in multiple installments.

Police warned that cybercrooks exploit current topics like Special Intensive Revision to make their scams seem legitimate.