Cyber scams and fraudulent activities have been on the rise in India lately, gaining momentum and posing a significant threat to the citizens. After a recent incident in Delhi wherein a doctor was duped of Rs 4.47 crore by fraudsters pretending as narcotics department officials from Maharashtra, another distressing incident has come into light where an IT professional from Mumbai fell prey to a cyber fraud scheme, resulting in a loss of Rs 1.97 lakh.
The fraudsters behind the scam posed as officials from the narcotics department, claiming that the woman’s Aadhaar number was linked to some criminal bank accounts. The matter was reported when the victim filed a First Information Report (FIR) with the local police.
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According to the victim’s complaint, she received an unknown call from an unidentified person posing as an employee of a courier company. The imposter informed her that a parcel to Taiwan could not be processed due to some complications. The woman clarified that she had not dispatched any such package to which the caller replied that if the parcel did not belong to her, she should report the matter online to the police. Caller alleged that the courier contained illegals items- five passports, two credit cards, and narcotics.
The caller then transferred the call to another accomplice claiming to be from the police department. This new caller, faking as a narcotics official, demanded the woman’s Aadhaar number, stating that it was linked to three criminal bank accounts and that to address this issue, the woman should download the Skype application. Following the instructions, she installed Skype on her phone. The fraudulent caller then provided her with his app ID displaying the term “narcotics department” in the username.
During the Skype conversation, the criminal presented the victim with photographs of some detained criminals, falsely claiming that these were the same criminals connected to her Aadhaar-linked bank accounts.
The caller next sent her a letter with ‘narcotics department’ mentioned on it. Scamster asked the victim for her bank accounts and instructed her to deposit Rs 98,888 from each of her two accounts stating it was for verification and the amount will be returned to the source account once the verification is done.
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The victim complied. It was only after some time when the money did not return into her account, she realised she had been scammed. She rushed to the local police station and longed her complaint against the scamsters.
