FASTag scam: Man loses Rs 2.4 lakh after installing mobile app

A man in Nallasopara lost Rs 2.4 lakh to cyber criminals while trying to recharge his FasTag account. The victim, who has not been named, was searching for the customer care number for FasTag online when he found a fake number. 

According to the Free Press Journal, on July 17, the 47-year-old man faced some difficulties with the recharge process. He sought assistance from 'Fastag Customer Care' via an online search.

He called the number and was instructed by the person on the other end to download a remote access application on his phone. Once the application was downloaded, the cyber criminals were able to access the victim's bank account and transfer Rs 2.4 lakh to their own account.

To make matters worse, after successfully duping the victim, the fake 'customer support executive' abruptly ended the call and cut off all connections.

Recognising the gravity of the situation, the victim wasted no time in reporting the occurrence to the appropriate authorities.

The police have filed the case under Sections 420 (pertaining to cheating and dishonestly inducing the delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 66C (related to identity theft) of the Information Technology Act. 

FASTag is an electronic toll-collecting system administered by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). FASTag is mounted to the windscreen of automobiles and is based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. They are prepaid, rechargeable toll tags.

In another incident in May, a native of Brahmavara in Karnataka was duped of nearly Rs 1 lakh after he tried to recharge his FASTag account by calling the helpline number available on the net.

The man, Francis Pius, was reportedly riding his four-wheeler from Brahmavara to Mangaluru when he discovered his FASTag balance was low. He was going to cross the Hejamady toll plaza when he remembered he needed to recharge his FASTag in order to pay the toll.

He was tricked into sharing a one-time password (OTP) with a fraudster pretending to be a Paytm FASTag representative. The scammer instilled trust, promising to provide assistance, which led Pius to follow the given instructions, including providing the received OTP.

The repercussions were immediate, with Pius witnessing deductions from his bank account almost instantly. The transactions began with a major debit of Rs 49,000 and were followed by others summing up to Rs 99,997.

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