Police said that the complainant had earlier filled an online form for the name change of his partner and provided his own mobile number. He subsequently began receiving messages and calls related to the process.A 79-year-old Pune resident lost Rs 11.92 lakh to a cyber fraudster posing as an election official, who offered to help change his partner’s name on her voter ID card.According to police, the fraudster asked the senior citizen to fill Form 8 for the name change, but what appeared to be a routine electoral correction ended with two unauthorised bank transfers from his account to mule accounts.Police said that the complainant had earlier filled an online form for the name change of his partner and provided his own mobile number. He subsequently began receiving messages and calls related to the process.Investigators are now trying to establish which online platform the complainant had submitted the request on and how the fraudsters managed to get details of the request.According to the FIR registered at the Swargate police station on Saturday, the complainant had submitted an online application a few days before the incident to make two changes to his partner’s name on the voter list. He had provided his mobile number in the application, he subsequently received WhatsApp messages and a voice call concerning the process — which complainant thought was part of the procedureOn October 7, an unidentified person contacted him on WhatsApp and told him that Form 8, rather than Form 6, was required to change his partner’s name on her voter ID card. The caller asked him to share personal and identification details, including his Aadhaar number and his partner’s Aadhaar number, voter ID card details, photograph and email address. The senior citizen shared all the information of his partner and also of his own, police said.The caller then sought a processing fee of Rs 5. The complainant made the payment through UPI from his bank account but received a message stating that the transaction had failed. He made the payment again and received another failure notification. When he subsequently checked his bank balance, he found that the money had been withdrawn.On approaching his bank, he learnt that two NEFT transactions of Rs 4.99 lakh and Rs 6.93 lakh had been carried out from his account without his consent, taking the total loss to Rs 11.92 lakhStory continues below this adThe 79-year-old man filed a complaint on the national cybercrime reporting portal on October 7. The police have registered a case under Sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act and Sections 318(4) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.“What we know so far is that two NEFT transactions of Rs 4.99 lakh and Rs 6.93 lakh were carried out from the complainant’s bank account without his consent. What remains unclear is how these transactions were initiated, what authentication mechanism was used, and how the accused gained access to the banking channel. We are also trying to determine whether the transactions originated through internet banking, mobile banking or another channel, and whether any credentials or authentication details were compromised.” said an officer part of the probe.Senior Inspector Yashwant Nikam of the Swargate police said, “The most likely scenario here is the complainant submitted a request on a fake portal and thus his contact details reached the fraudsters. However his FIR does not have details on how his bank account was compromised. We will be speaking to the senior citizen again to get more details on this.”Sushant Kulkarni is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express in Pune with 12+ years of experience covering issues related to Crime, Defence, Internal Security and Courts. He has been associated with the Indian Express since July 2010. Sushant has extensively reported on law and order issues of Pune and surrounding area, Cyber crime, narcotics trade and terrorism. His coverage in the Defence beat includes operational aspects of the three services, the defence research and development and issues related to key defence establishments. He has covered several sensitive cases in the courts at Pune. Sushant is an avid photographer, plays harmonica and loves cooking. ... Read MoreClick here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories