Mumbai: A 34-year-old teacher was duped of ₹1.17 lakh by cyber fraudsters who posed as Crime Branch officials in the drugs-in-parcel scam.
The drugs in parcel scam involve individuals impersonating courier executives and law enforcement officials. They contact people and falsely claim that a parcel containing illegal items has been found under their name, and try to extort money from them.
Accused Introduces himself as FedEx executive
The teacher, a resident of Gawanpada in Mulund, received a call on September 20 and the caller, Arnav Sinha, introduced himself as a customer care executive at FedEx, a multinational e-commerce company. The woman was told about a 'parcel' that they had found with her name on it – which was supposed to be shipped from Mumbai to Taiwan. She was told the parcel contained illegal drugs and that she would face a criminal case against her.
The woman denied her involvement and Sinha transferred the call to a ‘Crime Branch officer’ who informed the woman about charges she would face. She was induced to pay ₹45,525 as a fee for “beginning investigating” in the case. Later, she was asked to join a Skype call and provide a bank statement from September 1-9. They told her, as per their “system”, she had made several suspicious transactions amounting to ₹72,198. However, she had not done any transactions in this period.
Fake notice from CBI
They then sent her a notice with a header of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and a letter attached stamped by the Reserve Bank of India mentioning her name and her involvement in the illegal international drugs racket. The notice had the signature of Balsingh Rajput, deputy commissioner of police, Mumbai Police. Rajput was posted as Deputy Commissioner of Police cyber but later transferred to another zone.
The woman thought she would be sent to jail and sent ₹72,198 as demanded by the cyber crooks. The teacher and her husband then approached the Navghar police where they met another man Jaiwant Patil, who told them about how he was duped of ₹4.21 lakh after clicking a malicious link and they registered a case.
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