Claiming to be from the Mumbai police, the fraudsters allegedly pocketed money on the pretext of facilitating the probe into a case in which they claimed her documents had been misused.
A 50-year-old teacher in Bengaluru has lost over Rs 32 lakh after being duped by fraudsters who, claiming to be from the Mumbai police, threatened to take action saying there were five passports in her name, police said.
Rajeshwari Rao (name changed), a resident of Bengaluru, received a phone call from a person claiming to represent the FedEx courier company on August 2. Rao was informed that a parcel addressed to her contained sensitive personal information, including her mobile number, Aadhaar number, five passports, five credit cards and a laptop. The matter was taken up with the Mumbai police crime branch, she was further told.
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Shortly thereafter, Rao received another call, which instructed her to join a Skype call to discuss the passport’s discovery. During the video call, an individual posing as an officer from the Anti-Narcotics Control Bureau of the Mumbai police crime branch informed Rao that her documents had been misused by some people. She was then allegedly coerced into transferring money from her bank account “to facilitate the investigation”.
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Rao told the police that she had transferred Rs 32.25 lakh through multiple transactions to bank accounts as directed by the fraudsters. She later approached Bengaluru’s North-East division CEN police station with a complaint.
In another case, a 36-year-old man lost Rs 8 lakh after fraudsters claimed there was a parcel in his name containing three passports issued in his name and 160 g of MDMA sent from Mumbai to Taiwan. They made a video call and told the man that it was a case of drug smuggling and money laundering and asked for money to “settle” the case. He transferred the money but realised only later that he had fallen prey to a cybercrime.
First published on: 06-09-2023 at 14:49 IST