Pune Man, 80, Loses Rs 5 Lakh in Fake Voter ID Update Scam by Impersonator Posing as ECI Official

An 80-year-old retired employee in Pune has allegedly lost Rs 5 lakh in an online fraud after a person posing as an Election Commission of India (ECI) official contacted him on the pretext of updating his voter card, police said on Sunday.

A case has been registered at Lakshminagar Police Station in connection with the incident.

According to police, the complainant, Kanjasheri Vaidyanathan Venkatesan, is a retired employee of an automobile manufacturing company who resides in Pune’s Yerwada area. The accused allegedly contacted him, claimed to be from the ECI office and told him that his voter card needed to be updated.

The caller then instructed Venkatesan to download an APK file. After the file was installed, the accused allegedly gained access to the victim’s mobile screen, compromised his banking passwords and fraudulently transferred Rs 5 lakh.

Police have registered a case under Sections 308, 318(4) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with Sections 66(D) and 66(C) of the Information Technology Act.

The accused’s full identity and address have not yet been established. The investigation is underway, and further details are awaited, officials said.

In a separate case reported in Pune in June, a retired IT professional was allegedly cheated of more than Rs 4.43 crore by fraudsters posing as investment experts on WhatsApp and Telegram.

According to the complaint, the accused lured the victim with promises of extraordinary returns from stock market investments. They allegedly displayed fictitious profits exceeding Rs 26 crore on a fraudulent online trading platform before demanding additional payments under the pretext of service charges.

The complainant, identified as Chaudhary in the report, was repeatedly instructed to transfer money to different bank accounts for investment purposes. Believing the opportunity to be genuine, he allegedly transferred a total of Rs 4,43,25,000 from his IDFC Bank account to 34 separate accounts over a period of time.

When he sought to withdraw the displayed returns, the accused allegedly told him that he would first have to pay a service charge equivalent to five per cent of the profits shown on the platform.

The victim was reportedly told that a payment exceeding Rs 1 crore was mandatory before his withdrawal request could be processed and that no funds would be released until the service charge was deposited.

It was at this stage that the complainant allegedly began to suspect that he had fallen victim to an elaborate investment fraud.