New Delhi: Thieves claiming to be from “Maharashtra narcotics division” misled Delhi doctor of his savings of Rs 4.47 crore, in what is considered the biggest cyber scam against a person in Delhi to date.
The 34-year-old woman was told that a large amount of the drug “MDMA” had been detected in a fedex courier linked to her. Alleging that she was a recipient of drug money, the men wove a web of deceit and forced her to “temporarily deliver” her money to her accounts.
The thieves took her skype calls and wove a complex web of lies, posing as police officers from Andheri police station in turns, runs batted in officers, a DCP from the Mumbai Police, customs detectives and police officers from the narcotics division. Delhi Police filed an FIR and launched a technical investigation.
With banega crorepati: how these thieves wove a web of deception to catch doctor
Delhi’s largest cyber robbery of an individual victim, in which a 34-year-old female doctor was defrauded of Rs 4.5 crore, started with a phone call to the victim regarding her “FedEx package” which had been “seized”. , according to the complaint that narrates the sequence of events to which TOI has accessed.
“On May 5th at 10:39 a.m. I received a call on my mobile from an unknown number. The caller claimed to be from FedEx and said my package had been seized and I should dial 1 for more details. I was told that there was my passport, bank documents, two pairs of shoes, 140 g MDMA and clothes,” the victim said.
This package, the callers claimed, was going from Mumbai to Taiwan and was booked on April 21, 2023 and a charge of Rs 25,025 plus GST was paid via an ICICI credit card. When the victim denied any knowledge of this messenger, the person she called asked her to file a complaint at Andheri Police Station and directed her call to “Inspector Smita Patel” at Andheri East Police Station. As the victim was in Delhi, “Inspector Patil” advised him to register a complaint online and asked him to download the skype application
“The woman claiming to be Inspector Patil connected with me on my newly created Skype ID and then I received a Skype call with the profile ID Mumbai Andheri East cyber Crime. I was then asked to give a recorded statement on this ID. She he put me on the call and I talked to someone and tried to confirm my aadhaar id for any other misuse,” the victim said.
The victim heard a person say on that call that his ID had been used to open 23 bank accounts in Mumbai and was flagged for money laundering. The woman who claimed to be an inspector said that the victim would be investigated for multiple crimes and she would have to be arrested.
The victim was then asked to give screenshots of all his bank accounts showing the balance and reveal all his financial details down to the last rupee. She followed the instructions and shared these screenshots on Skype.
The “cop” on the other line advised him to break up his fixed deposits for seizure and verification. The woman first broke the FD of her worth Rs 1.15 crore and was then asked to go to the branch in Gopinath Bazar to break the rest of it. The victim was also asked not to involve others, including her husband, as they would also be treated as accessories to the crime.
Thereafter another policeman claiming to be a DCP Bal Singh Rajput took over the communication and asked him to fill in the RTGS forms. She was also directed to a new Skype ID purportedly from the “Maharashtra narcotics division”. Another official, claiming to be from the Reserve Bank of India, also joined.
The woman was asked to transfer money from her account, which they claimed was proceeds of crime, to runs batted in which would then be transferred back after verification. A complaint was sent to him, on Mumbai Police stationery, along with a letter from the RBI. The woman was then forced to make an RTGS transaction worth Rs 1 crore and share a screenshot with the crooks. Subsequently, she also made another transfer of Rs 90 lakh.
The woman was forced to take her husband’s signatures, tear up the joint FDs, and then transfer the money to them. After a sum of Rs 4.73 crore was transferred, she was asked to sit back and wait for the clearance report from the RBI on whether the money was legal.
The crooks also claimed that they were going to issue him a new aadhaar ID as this ID had been permanently blocked. They also asked him to get rid of all his Skype conversations.
The woman, certain the amount was not drug money, waited until May 9, but the “Bombay narcotics division” never backed down. The “RBI and Andheri Police Stations” also disappeared from the scene. In the end, the woman was sent two “settlement certificates” indicating that her accounts were in order and no illegal transactions were detected.
“FedEx does not request personal information through phone calls, postal mail or unsolicited email for goods being shipped or held, unless requested/initiated by customers. If any person receives any suspicious calls or messages, they are advised not to provide their personal information and should instead contact our customer service hotline at 1800-22-6161 or 1800-209-6161 for verification,” FedEx said in a press release. .
