Retired bank manager loses ₹10 lakh in APK scam during pension verification fraud in Vadodara

Cyber fraudsters duped a retired Bank of Baroda manager in Vadodara of ₹10 lakh by posing as pension life certificate verification officials and tricking him into downloading an APK file while sharing his screen over WhatsApp. The Cyber Crime Police have registered a case and launched an investigation.

The complainant, 65-year-old Paresh Pandya, is a retired manager of Bank of Baroda and holds two accounts, one savings and one salary account, at a BOB branch.

On November 8, 2025, he had uploaded the required details on the official Bank of Baroda website for pension life certificate submission.

Soon after, he received a phone call from an unknown person claiming that a WhatsApp video call would be made for certificate verification. During the video call, the fraudster asked him to share his screen and fill out a form.

He was then persuaded to download an APK file, allegedly described as his verified certificate, while the caller claimed that the ‘server was down’ and kept the screen-sharing session active for 38 minutes.

Pandya disconnected the call after his wife suspected it could be fraudulent. He immediately contacted the bank to freeze all accounts, changed passwords, and disabled debit cards, mobile banking, and net banking access. However, by then, the fraudsters had already siphoned off ₹5 lakh each from both accounts, totalling ₹10 lakh.

Based on the complaint, Cyber Crime Police have registered an offence against the holder of the mobile number used in the fraud, the beneficiary bank account holders, the sender of the APK file, and all other persons involved under relevant sections of the Information Technology Act and cheating charges.