A young man from Guturi in Yelburga taluk of Koppal district has lost Rs 6.10 lakh after falling victim to a cyber fraud scheme involving a fake BSNL tower installation advertisement on Instagram. Dhariyappa, the victim, contacted the mobile number provided in the ad, where fraudsters promised Rs 60 lakh as an advance payment and Rs 50,000 monthly rent for installing a tower. Believing the offer, Dhariyappa was convinced to pay for equipment, GST, road tax, land valuation, and insurance, transferring funds from various bank accounts to unknown recipients. The fraudsters never installed the tower or refunded the money, leading Dhariyappa to file a complaint at the Cyber Police Station, where an FIR has been registered.
In a separate incident in Kustagi taluk, contractor Veeranagouda from Tavaragere lost his mobile phone while traveling by bus on September 24. Fraudsters exploited the PhonePe app on the device to transfer Rs 96,000 from his bank account to another account. Despite repeated awareness campaigns warning that social media advertisements are not always official, many residents continue to fall prey to such cyber scams.