Two duped of over ₹15 lakh in fake betting scheme, bogus RTA app
In the first case, a 24-year-old man from Musheerabad lost ₹13.42 lakh in an online betting investment scam after being contacted by a woman posing as a representative of a platform called, Sapphire Betting Casino. The fraudster, identifying herself as Aarya, reached out to the victim via WhatsApp on July 8, enticing him with promises of high returns.
Over a series of calls, video demonstrations and messages shared through Instagram, she built the illusion of a legitimate investment opportunity.
Under continuous psychological manipulation and pressure, the victim began by transferring ₹10,000 through UPI, but continued investing as he was shown fake profit updates. The total amount lost across multiple transactions eventually reached ₹13,42,778. Realising he was duped, the victim approached the cybercrime wing of the Hyderabad police.
In a separate incident, a 34-year-old resident of Secunderabad was defrauded of ₹1.72 lakh after he downloaded a malicious apk file sent to him via WhatsApp. The file, rta challan.apk, appeared to be a legitimate app to check traffic challans. After installing it and entering personal details, the victim's phone was compromised. On July 18, he noticed unauthorised debits from his HDFC bank account and discovered that his mobile had been remotely accessed, with all calls diverted to an unknown number.
Though he managed to disable the call forwarding and secure his device, ₹1,72,625 had already been withdrawn by the time he regained control. The matter was reported to the national cybercrime helpline.
Investigations in both the cases are under way.
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