Dehradun, 17 Oct: A retired man from Dehradun has become victim of an online fraud after being tricked through a fake Facebook message related to pension updates.
The victim, Rajendra Singh Negi, a resident of Upper Badrish Colony, lost Rs 9.66 lakh to cybercriminals who posed as officials from Punjab National Bank (PNB).
According to the complaint filed at the Cyber Crime Police Station, Dehradun, the incident took place on 10 October 2025. Negi saw a message on Facebook claiming to help pensioners update their life certificates. The message contained a link, which he clicked on to complete the update process.
Soon after, he received a call from an unknown number. The caller introduced himself as an employee of PNB’s pension cell and asked Negi to download an APK file sent via WhatsApp. Believing the person, Negi filled in his personal and pension details in the app as instructed.
The next day, Negi discovered that a total of Rs 9.31 lakh had been withdrawn from one of his PNB accounts and Rs 35,000 from another. When he tried to contact the person again, the phone numbers were switched off. He also found that his mobile phone had been call-forwarded to another number, which allowed the fraudsters to access his device and bank information.
Police said the fraudsters had created a fake Facebook advertisement and impersonated a bank pension officer to gain the victim’s trust.
Officials also urged citizens to never download unknown APK files or share banking details online, and to report such incidents immediately to the 1930 helpline.
