An 80-year-old retired automotive employee in Pune was defrauded of ₹5 lakh by a cyber criminal posing as an official of the Election Commission of India (ECI), who tricked him into downloading a malicious APK file under the pretext of updating his voter card, police said on Sunday. A case has been registered at the Lakshminagar Police Station in Pune.

How the Scam Unfolded

The victim, Kanjasheri Vaidyanathan Venkatesan, aged 80, is a retired employee of an automotive manufacturing company and resides in the Yerwada area of Pune. According to police, the accused contacted him by phone, falsely claiming to represent the ECI's office and stating that his voter card required an update.

The caller then instructed Venkatesan to download an APK file on his mobile device. Once the file was installed, the accused gained remote access to the victim's screen, extracted his banking credentials, and siphoned off ₹5 lakh from his account.

Legal Sections Invoked

A case has been registered under Sections 308, 318(4), and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), as well as Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the IT Act. Police confirmed that the full identity and address of the accused have not yet been established, and the investigation is ongoing.

A Pattern of Cyber Fraud in Pune

This incident is not isolated. In a similar case reported from Pune in June, a retired IT professional was allegedly duped of more than ₹4.43 crore by fraudsters posing as investment advisors on WhatsApp and Telegram. In that case, the accused lured the victim with promises of extraordinary stock market returns, displaying fictitious profits of over ₹26 crore on a fake trading platform before demanding additional payments as 'service charges.'

According to the complaint in that case, the victim transferred a total of ₹4,43,25,000 from his IDFC Bank account into 34 separate bank accounts over a period of time. The accused subsequently insisted that a payment exceeding ₹1 crore — described as five per cent of the displayed profits — was mandatory before any withdrawal could be processed. It was only at this stage that the complainant began to suspect fraud.

Growing Threat of Impersonation Scams

Cyber criminals impersonating government bodies such as the ECI have increasingly targeted elderly and retired citizens across India. These attacks typically exploit trust in official institutions, urgency framing around document compliance, and victims' limited familiarity with mobile security. Cybersecurity experts consistently caution against downloading APK files from unknown sources, noting that such files can grant attackers full remote access to a device.

With Pune's cybercrime unit now investigating the Venkatesan case, authorities are expected to seek call records and device forensics to trace the accused. Citizens are advised to verify any government-related call independently before acting on instructions.