BENGALURU: In a latest case of courier fraud, a 66-year-old founder-CEO of a software firm has lost ₹2.3 crore to fraudsters, reports Chaithanya Swamy.
The conmen allegedly contacted the CEO, saying a parcel in his name being sent abroad contained drugs, passports and clothes. They accused him of being involved in money-laundering and made him transfer money from his account to them on the pretext of verifying his transactions.
Ajit (name changed), a resident of CV Raman Nagar, filed a complaint with East CEN Crime police station on Feb 16 against unknown persons. Ajit got a call from an unknown number at 8.30am on Feb 6. The caller claimed to be an executive of ‘FedEx’ courier from Mumbai. The caller repeated Ajit’s name, Aadhaar number and mobile number and then claimed there was a parcel in his name and it contained 150gm MDMA, 4kg clothes, 4 passports and they were being illegally sent to Shanghai.
The caller informed Ajit that there was a case registered against him with Mumbai’s Andheri narcotics police station and he said he would transfer the call to the police officer concerned.
The second person introduced himself as Balaji Singh, DCP, crime branch, Andheri East police station. He asked Ajit to come to Mumbai immediately or face arrest. After managing to scare him, the miscreant asked him to download the Skype application. They made a Skype call to Ajit, who could see what appeared to be like a police station with a few people in khaki uniform, including the said Singh. Ajit believed the call was genuine from the police department.
Ajit tried explaining to Singh he was not involved in drug peddling. The miscreants told him there was a bank account opened using his Aadhaar and the money laundering was happening from that account. The miscreants warned Ajit not to inform anyone about the call, including his family members. They also told him that their “sleeper cells” were watching his movement. After managing to traumatise Ajit, the miscreants acted as if they were going to help him overcome the problem. They said to safeguard his account, he needed to transfer all the money from his account to the RBI and claimed they would return his money after verification by the officials concerned.The miscreants started sharing bank account numbers with Ajit and got him to transfer money to them. From Feb 7 to 14, he transferred Rs 30 lakh, Rs 20 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30 lakh, Rs 30 lakh, Rs 50 lakh, and Rs 5 lakh to eight accounts. After Ajit transferred Rs 2.3 crore, the Skype calls stopped. Ajit realised he had been cheated and lodged a police complaint.
