Woman loses ₹7.46 lakh in sophisticated bank KYC scam

A 37-year-old woman from Ahmedabad’s Nikol has allegedly lost more than ₹7.46 lakh in a sophisticated cyber fraud after fraudsters impersonating Bank of India officials sent her a fake KYC update message and malicious mobile application. 

Neelam Patel, a homemaker residing in Nikol, alleged that cyber criminals targeted her through WhatsApp messages sent from an unknown mobile number, claiming that her Bank of India account required immediate KYC verification.

On May 19, 2026, she received a WhatsApp message from mobile number 6352412187 carrying what appeared to be an official Bank of India KYC update notice. The message also contained an application file named “BOI Pan Card Update.apk”, which purportedly offered a facility to update Aadhaar and PAN card details linked to her bank account.

Initially, the family did not act on the message. However, after discussing the matter with bank staff at the Bank of India’s Sardar Mall branch in Bapunagar, her husband believed the message might be genuine and later downloaded the application.

A few days later, the couple noticed several debit alerts and OTP messages linked to the bank account. Upon checking, they discovered that unauthorised transactions had been carried out from Neelam Patel’s savings account.

Further investigation revealed that the email address registered with the bank account had allegedly been changed from the complainant’s original Gmail account to another email ID, enabling the fraudsters to gain control over account-related authentication processes.

Cyber cell officials said the accused allegedly stole banking credentials, intercepted OTPs and manipulated account settings before transferring funds through multiple transactions. The money was routed through various payment channels, including bill payments and IMPS transfers.

The transactions include transfers of ₹1.79 lakh, ₹1.95 lakh, ₹49,500, ₹1.24 lakh, ₹25,000, ₹25,000 and ₹1.48 lakh, amounting to a total loss of ₹7.46 lakh

After discovering the fraud, the complainant contacted the national cybercrime helpline 1930 and subsequently lodged a complaint through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal. She also requested Bank of India to freeze access to the compromised account and debit card.

The accused allegedly impersonated bank officials, illegally accessed the victim’s mobile device, obtained confidential banking credentials and altered account information before siphoning off the funds.

The Cyber Crime Police Station, Ahmedabad, has registered a case and initiated an investigation. Police are attempting to trace the individuals behind the WhatsApp number used in the fraud and identify the beneficiary accounts that received the stolen funds.

No arrests had been reported in the case at the time of filing this report.