Vehicle owners in Bengaluru are now being cheated by cyber fraudsters in the name of collecting fines for violation of traffic norms. Several cases have come to light recently, where motorists have turned up at the Traffic Management Centre (TMC) complaining that they were receiving notices to pay fines from Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) even after paying them online.
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Investigation into these cases has uncovered a new modus operandi employed by cyber frauds, where they send messages to motorists through WhatsApp, informing them of the penalties pending against their vehicles, with a QR code to pay them. Many unsuspecting people have paid the fines, which have been swindled by cyber fraudsters.
M.N. Anucheth, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bengaluru appealed to motorists not to fall for such frauds. “BTP sends notices through post only. We do not send WhatsApp messages and there is no option to pay the fines through a QR Code. We request commuters to only trust and use our website https://btp.gov.in and not any other app or website,” he said.
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BTP lodges complaint against 5 apps
BTP has now zeroed in on five unauthorised mobile applications available on Google Play Store, as a possible source of the cyber fraud. These apps have unauthorisedly been displaying fines for traffic violations against vehicles in the city. Many users have downloaded and have been using these apps.
“It is not clear whether these messages to commuters to pay up with a QR code are being sent by these apps or cyber frauds are sending them by misusing the data on these apps. However, these apps are illegal and how they have accessed this data is a cause for concern” a senior official said.
BTP has now lodged a complaint with Cyber Crime Police against the developers of five mobile applications - called Bangalore Traffic, Bangalore Traffic Check F, Traffic Bangalore, Bangalore Traffic Fine Checker, and Traffic Fines Bangalore - and BTP has asked Cyber Crime Police to have them removed from the Google Play Store.
Where do these apps get data from?
However, these apps and the cyber frauds now flagged by BTP have raised the question of the source of the traffic penalty data on these apps. The FIR registered based on the complaint by Jagadisha C., Database Administrator, TMC says that the complainant has alleged that the accused have accessed this data from Bangalore One portal, a government-owned integrated citizen services utility. Sources in BTP said the only other authority with which BTP shares the traffic fines data is with the Bangalore One portal and they suspect the breach must have happened at the portal itself.