Kerala: 78-year-old man loses over Rs 4 lakh in IRCTC ticket scam

A 78-year-old man from Kerala lost Rs 4 lakh to cybercriminals through a deceptively simple-looking scam. The entire ordeal began when he tried to cancel a train ticket via the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) website. The fake portal convincingly mirrored the appearance of the credible railway ticketing site, luring the unsuspecting senior citizen into a pitfall.

The elderly man, M Mohammed Bashir, based in Kozhikode Vandipetta was trying to cancel train tickets that he had booked as his travel plans changed. He then received a call from a person who was pretending to be a railway official. Not only did the imposter fluently converse in both English and Hindi, but also successfully persuaded Basheer into downloading a mobile application called 'Rest Desk'.

According to Basheer, the so-called railway official instructed him thoroughly in the process of downloading and installing the 'Rest Desk' app on his smartphone. Unbeknownst to the Kozhikode resident, this was a deceitful trick that gave the fraudsters unhindered access to his mobile device. He soon received notification that money had been withdrawn from his savings account. He immediately rushed to his bank, only to discover that Rs 4 lakh from his fixed deposit had been withdrawn.

According to police, the scammers called Basheer several times using three different phone numbers, and when he attempted to notify the bank the first time after a sum was withdrawn, the scammers blocked him from doing so. Basheer subsequently formatted his phone to prevent further data breaches and reported the incident to the bank as well as the police department's cyber cell.

As per the investigation, Basheer downloaded the 'Rest Desk' app, which allowed the scammers to access his phone. The money was taken out in four different transactions, with a total of Rs 4,05,919 deducted from Kolkata. The authorities are now suspecting that the scammers are linked to people from Bengal and Bihar.

This distressing incident comes after IRCTC warned users against fake mobile app campaigns through which fraudsters are using phishing schemes via a widespread mobile app campaign, posing as either a legitimate private company or even a government entity.

The fraud involves the distribution of phishing links designed to trick users into downloading a bogus version of the IRCTC Rail Connect mobile app.

The counterfeit IRCTC app is being distributed through popular messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. The app looks very similar to the official IRCTC app, so it can be easy to mistake it for the real thing. However, the counterfeit app does not have the same security features as the official app, and it can be used to steal your personal information and financial data.

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