Summary of this article
Mumbai senior citizen, 68, lost Rs 17 lakh while booking doctor's appointment. Fraudsters used malicious app to access details, broke her fixed deposits fraudulently and withdrawn the money. Downloading app from unverified source could be risky
A 68-year-old senior citizen lost Rs 17 lakh after downloading an app while booking a doctor’s appointment. The Mumbai-based woman discovered the fraud a few days after the money was siphoned from her account.
In her complaint to the cybercrime, she recalled downloading an app on September 1, 2025, while seeking a doctor’s appointment. While searching the Internet, she had called a phone number for an appointment with a doctor, but eventually ended up being defrauded of Rs 17 lakh.
According to her, a man answered the number and asked her to download an app called ‘Appointment Booking’. She said she did as advised and entered all her details. According to her, the app then disappeared from her phone. In the rush, she ignored this and searched for the doctor’s visiting card, called the number, and booked her son’s appointment.
A few days later, when she visited her bank to update her passbook, she learnt that her fixed deposits of Rs 5.40 lakh and Rs 11.60 lakh had been liquidated. The funds had been moved to her savings account and from there, subsequently withdrawn between September 14 and 16. After discovering the fraud, she got her account frozen to prevent further withdrawals.
The woman also called 1930 – the cybercrime helpline number – to make a complaint, and was further advised to lodge an FIR with the cyber police station, which she did on September 17, according to a report in the Times of India.
According to the police, the fraudsters made her download a malicious app to access her phone’s personal details. They then used this data to break into her FDs and withdraw the money.
Fraudsters typically look for people who can easily trust them, such as senior citizens, to defraud. In the digitally advancing world, to safeguard oneself from such frauds, digital arrests, deepfakes, etc., one needs to be extremely careful before clicking on any link or downloading an app. Typically, fraudsters use APK files, which if downloaded from an unverified source, may carry malware and steal data from the device. The malware can further harm the device by slowing it down.
According to experts, one can avoid such fraud by updating the software and the operating system regularly, checking the authenticity of the source before downloading any software, installing an anti-virus, and also reporting any suspicious message on WhatsApp or SMS to the government’s Chakshu portal.
