Courier scam makes 66-year-old poorer by ₹1.52 crore – Here’s how you can protect yourself

• A 66-year-old Bengaluru resident has lost ₹1.52 crore to a courier scam.
• He was duped by people pretending to be from the Andheri police department.
• Here’s everything you need to know about the scam and how to protect yourself.

Scams have been on the rise in the country, from scammers using AI deepfake videos to SIM swap scams, new scams are surfacing frequently. In a bizarre incident, a 66-year-old man in Bengaluru lost ₹1.52 crore to a new kind of scam which has been on the rise in recent times.

According to a report by Indian Express, Debashish Das, a resident of Bengaluru lost ₹1.52 crore to a courier scam. The victim, Das, has now filed a complaint with the South CEN police station.

What is the courier scam?

You must be wondering what the courier scam is and how the victim fell in the trap. Here’s everything you need to know about the courier scam:

As part of the scam, the victim initially got a call from the scammer, who claimed to be an official from a courier company, informing the victim that a parcel with his name containing contraband material had been intercepted. The person then gets the victim to transfer a huge sum of money to be cleared of drug trafficking and money laundering charges.

Here's how the scam works

In this instance, Das received a call from a person who claimed he was Kartikeya, an official from courier operator FedEx. He claimed that a case has been registered against the victim in Mumbai as a parcel sent in his name to Taiwan has been intercepted. This parcel reportedly contained five expired passports, six credit cards, and 950 grams of drugs.

The victim was then asked to get in touch with an Andheri police officer on a Skype call as a case had been registered with the Andheri cybercrime department.

The victim was sent a link for the Skype call, which he joined and spoke to a man identifying himself as Mumbai cybercrime branch police officer “Pradeep Sawant”.

Das was then informed that a fake account had been opened in his name and to be cleared of money laundering charges, he had to send the details of all his bank accounts to a deputy commissioner of police (DCP).

The victim then contacted a person pretending to be the DCP, who asked Das to close all his accounts and fixed deposits and to transfer the money in an account designated by him.

Das then transferred ₹1.52 crore to a Punjab National Bank account. The scammers had earlier claimed that they would investigate and respond within 30 to 40 minutes. However, they stopped responding after receiving money.

New FedEx courier scam

In a similar manner, a FedEx courier scam is reportedly on the rise, wherein a Bengaluru resident lost ₹1.98 crore. As part of this scam, the scammer called the victim, pretending to be a FedEx executive and informed the victim that a package containing illegal drugs addressed to the victim had been intercepted.

Then, the scammer transferred the call to a person pretending to be from the Mumbai Police Cyber Cell. In a similar modus operandi as the courier scam, the victim was then duped of ₹1.98 crore.

How to protect yourself from such scams

It has become increasingly common for people to receive calls from people claiming to be officials from law enforcement agencies, asking users their account details or directing them to transfer money to different accounts.

Users must keep in mind that law enforcement agencies never contact in such a way and do not ask users to provide them with bank account details or to transfer money to any account.

If you receive any such call, immediately approach your local police department or the nearest cybercrime department.

Avoid sharing any personal or banking information with anyone claiming to be from any law enforcement agency or third-party companies.

SEE ALSO:

Sanju Samson to Yuzvendra Chahal, players who missed out on World Cup and Aus T20I series

The most common passwords in India and how long it takes to crack them

Google to stop offering unlimited WhatsApp backups – here’s what it means for you and me