FedEx Package, Narcotics Drug, Skype Call: How Crooks Looted Rs 1.5 Lakh From Bhubaneswar Resident

Bhubaneswar: A Bhubaneswar resident was looted of Rs 1.5 lakh by cyber frauds pretending to be from Mumbai police narcotics division and and DCP level officers recently.

The Economic Offences Wing, Bhubaneswar, on Sunday said that it all began with a phone call ( VoIP call) to Ratna Tripathy of Nayapalli on Monday regarding her “FedEx package” that had been “seized”. An employee of FedEx, Hyderabad, told her that a parcel containing six passports, one laptop, five ATM cards, 150 grams of Narcotics drugs, sent to her, had been intercepted by NCB Mumbai officials. When she denied sending or ordering any parcel, the caller asked her to come down personally to the Narcotic Bureau Cell Mumbai to clarify her point and if she cannot attend physically, she can be connected to Mr. Gill of Narcotic Bureau, Mumbai, over Skype. If she ignores this, she will be prosecuted under various charges including narcotics case and money laundering, the release said.

Accordingly, she connected to Skype, the site of Mumbai Narcotic Bureau and a person who introduced himself as Mr. Gill, Head of the Narcotic Bureau Cell, Mumbai, told her that a case of money laundering, Narcotics smuggling and violation of crypto norm has been filed against her due to the illegal transactions through her bank accounts. They also told her that she has links with gangster Islam Malik. Then she was made to talk to one Dr. Balsing Rajput, IPS, DCP, Cyber Crime, who showed her a document issued by CBI and a letter with the seal of RBI that mentions her involvement in money laundering. He suggested her that if she wants to prove her innocence, she has to send an amount of around Rs 1.5 lakh to the given account number of FDRBI of RBI for verification. Further, she was assured that if nothing illegal/suspicious is found with her bank transactions, the amount will be immediately returned to her within 15 minutes. Out of panic, she sent the amount from her bank accounts through UPI and IMPS. During the conversation for next 10 to 15 minutes, she was given the clean chit but the caller went off line, and her money was never returned as assured.

During investigation, the EOW found that hundreds of people, across the country, have been cheated in a similar manner. “As the scammers use the name of real NCB/ CBI/ ED/ IPS officers, people tend to believe them as genuine. However they don’t show their face in the video chat. They use fake identity cards/certificates which further emboldens the belief that they are genuine.”

It further said that the amount deposited by victim had landed in a mule account of one Jagdamba Enterprises in Punjab. It was also found that scammers, in just 2-3 days, had extorted Rs 5.58 crore (from many victims across the country using this single account). However this money was further transferred to different mule accounts and ultimately a chunk of this amount was withdrawn through ATM in Dubai, UAE.

The nodal agency has frozen 17 bank accounts involved in this fraud. “Further steps are being taken to identify the real mastermind of this scam and the fraudsters sitting in Dubai,” the release added.

The EoW has also issued an advisory:

1. Never believe such callers/scammers. Nothing will happen if you have not done anything wrong.

2. NCB/ CBI/ ED/ Police don’t make such calls or Skype Chats.

3. Always insist on calling on normal phone call not VoIP/Whatsapp/ Skype etc

4. Never transfer money unless you are 100% sure that this is not a scam.

5. In case of video chat, insist on showing face of the caller.

6. Doesn’t trust fake ID card/certificates shown on these Chats. Cross check it with official websites.

7. If you find anything suspicious, please dial 1930 or file a complaint at cybercrime.gov.in or report to local police or Dial 112.

Notably, a 34-year-old doctor from Delhi had lost Rs 4.5 crore last month in what is believed to be biggest cyber con on individual till date.