A 33-year-old private firm employee from Bengaluru fell victim to a cyber scam after receiving a fake traffic violation message on WhatsApp. The fraudsters siphoned off ₹1.7 lakh from his accounts, but quick action helped him recover ₹80,000.  The victim, Arpit Haldar, a resident of Horamavu, received a WhatsApp message on February 22 at around 2 PM. The message claimed he had violated traffic rules on Kammanahalli Main Road and urged him to check the details by clicking a link. Thinking it was from the official Parivahan portal, Haldar clicked on the link, which downloaded an APK file. However, upon noticing no violation receipt, he suspected foul play and promptly deleted the file, cleared his cache, and restarted his phone.   Bengaluru: Man cheats job seekers of Rs 17 lakh by posing as RAW officer, case filedHaldar, who commutes on a two-wheeler in Bengaluru while his four-wheeler remains in Chennai, initially thought the message was legitimate. Since the notification did not mention any vehicle details, he called his family to check if they had used his car. When they confirmed they hadn’t, he realized something was off.  "I was aware of APK file scams, but since the message mentioned Kammanahalli Main Road near my office in Kalyan Nagar, I thought it was genuine. Usually, I receive traffic violation alerts via SMS, but this time, it was on WhatsApp, so I assumed the traffic police had upgraded their system," he said.  Later that night, around 1 AM, he started receiving multiple phone calls, which he initially ignored. When the calls persisted, he worried it might be a family emergency and answered. Soon after, his inbox was flooded with OTP messages, around 40 of them, linked to transactions from his Flipkart and Amazon accounts and two credit cards.  "I was shocked as it was all happening in the middle of the night. The fraudsters booked four hotel rooms in Delhi, recharged four Delhi Metro cards, topped up FASTags, and made online purchases, including gift cards," he said.   Bengaluru: Marketing executive from Ooty found dead inside car amid suspected Cardiac arrestRealizing he had been scammed, Haldar acted swiftly. He contacted customer support for both e-commerce platforms and successfully blocked some transactions before the orders were dispatched. He also alerted his banks, preventing further losses.  Thanks to his prompt response, he managed to recover ₹80,000. The Banaswadi police have registered a case under the Information Technology Act and are investigating the fraud.