FPJ Cyber Secure: Bank Employee Duped Of ₹20 Lakh By Fake Customs Officials

Mumbai: A 36-year-old senior employee of a private bank was recently scammed of ₹20 lakh by fraudsters posing as Mumbai Customs officials investigating a money laundering case.

The complainant, a resident of Thane, was informed by an unknown caller on July 22 that a parcel containing 140 gms of mephedrone drugs, five passports, two credit cards, shoes, and clothes had been intercepted by Customs, and that a First Information Report (FIR) had been registered against her at Andheri police station.

After insisting that the parcel didn’t belong to her, the victim was asked to provide her residential address, Aadhar card number, and email address and further instructed to transfer all the money from her bank account, amounting to ₹20 lakh, to an account provided by the fraudsters, who claimed that the Reserve Bank of India needed to check the source of the funds before returning them to her account.

The victim ultimately transferred the funds, but became suspicious when the money failed to return after three days. She eventually approached the police and filed a complaint under Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.