Mumbai police arrest developer accused of 2,805 fake APKs: 'senior citizen card' to challans

Illustrative stock image via Unsplash. It does not depict the organisations named.

Mumbai Crime Branch says a 36-year-old developer from Madhya Pradesh built and sold thousands of fake app files posing as senior citizen cards, life certificates, pension checks and traffic challans. Police link them to frauds on about 9,673 people.

01 / What happened

The Property Cell of the Mumbai Police Crime Branch has arrested a 36-year-old software developer from Madhya Pradesh. Police allege he made malicious Android app files (APKs) and sold them to cyber fraud gangs, UNI, MumbaiPress and The420.in reported on 5 and 6 October 2026.

• Police say he created 2,805 fake APK files, linked to frauds on about 9,673 people across India.
• The files posed as senior citizen cards, life certificates, pension verification, traffic challans and credit-card updates.
• Police say they linked 1,074 complaints on the national cyber crime portal and 1930 to the files, involving ₹15.75 crore. They suspect the total fraud carried out with these apps is more than ₹150 crore, but that is an estimate.
• Police seized a pen drive, a computer, three hard disks, a Wi-Fi router and three phones, and say he rented servers from several hosting companies.

02 / How the case started

On 13 August, a 72-year-old man in Byculla got a call from someone posing as a bank manager, who offered to help him get a senior citizen card and sent a file named 'Senior Citizen Card Verification' on WhatsApp. He installed it and entered his personal and debit-card details, and ₹5.62 lakh left his account, according to the reports. Byculla police registered the case, which moved to the Crime Branch. Analysing the app led investigators to the developer.

03 / Why it matters

Police usually arrest the callers or the people whose bank accounts receive the money. This case goes after the person accused of building the tool, sold to many gangs. The lures are the ones people get right now: pensioners are being called about life certificates and senior citizen cards ahead of the November life-certificate season, and fake challan messages keep circulating.

Once installed and given permissions, such apps can read SMS, including bank OTPs, and send the data to the fraudsters, as our APK malware guide explains.

04 / Confirmed vs. claimed

Reported (media, citing Mumbai police): the arrest, the 2,805 files, the 9,673 people, 1,074 complaints and ₹15.75 crore, the seizures, and the Byculla case. The figure of more than ₹150 crore is a police suspicion, not a finding. We could not find a Mumbai Police press release, so these are police statements as reported. The arrest is an allegation; the accused has not been convicted. We are not naming him because no official release we could check names him.

05 / What to do

• Never install an app sent on WhatsApp, SMS or a call, whatever it claims to be. Official services are on the government site or in the Play Store, under the department's own name.
• For a life certificate, use the Jeevan Pramaan app or your bank or pension office; see our life certificate scam guide.
• Check traffic challans only on the official e-challan site or app, never through a link in a message.
• Installed one already? Switch on flight mode, uninstall it, and call your bank to block cards, UPI and net banking. Then call 1930.
• Lost money? Use our lost-money checklist.