Mumbai Judge Loses ₹93,000 After Paying Just ₹20 to Fake Customer Care App
Mumbai Judge Loses ₹93,000 After Paying Just ₹20 to Fake Customer Care App
Cyber criminals managed to defraud a sitting Mumbai judge of ₹93,000 after he paid only ₹20 to a fraudulent customer support application. The incident highlights how even experienced professionals can fall prey to increasingly sophisticated online scams.
The 46-year-old judge, posted at the Small Causes Court and living in the Government Officers’ Colony near Haji Ali in Tardeo, noticed a pink line appearing on the display of his Samsung S22 smartphone on March 30. While searching online for support, he found a number claiming to be Samsung customer care and later received a call from a different number. The caller presented himself as a customer support executive.
The fraudster instructed the judge to register an online complaint to fix the screen and sent him a “customer support” APK file via WhatsApp. After downloading the app, the judge was asked to make two small payments of ₹10 each through Google Pay, totaling ₹20, as part of the registration process.
Once the judge allowed the caller remote access to his phone, he began receiving messages stating that his request was in progress. Later that evening, he discovered two unauthorized transactions from his State Bank of India account, totaling ₹93,000—₹90,000 and ₹3,000—transferred to a UPI ID linked to a person named “Pappu Sachin Yadav.”
Realizing he had been targeted, the judge contacted the cyber helpline 1930 and filed a complaint at Tardeo Police Station. Police confirmed that the malicious APK app allowed the scammer access to his banking information. An FIR has been registered against an unidentified accused, and investigations are ongoing.
On the same day, authorities arrested a 25-year-old man from Jharkhand for allegedly duping a Bombay High Court judge of ₹6.02 lakh. Investigators say the suspect is linked to at least 36 cyber fraud cases across 10 states.
In another high-profile case, a 69-year-old retired senior officer from Mumbai was defrauded of ₹1.57 crore in December last year. Scammers posed as police and court officials, staged a fake court hearing via video call, and invoked the name of a former Supreme Court judge to intimidate the victim. The Mumbai Police Cyber Cell arrested an auto-rickshaw driver, Ashok Pal, who allegedly helped funnel the stolen money through his bank account in exchange for a commission.
