A 29-year-old lawyer in Karnataka’s Bengaluru has become the latest victim of the ‘FedEx’ frauds, where scammers, posing as CBI officers, cheated her of around Rs 15 lakh. The woman’s nightmare, however, did not end there as the cybercriminals added another dimension to the fraud by making her strip on a video call for what they claimed was a ‘narcotics test’.
As per the police, what started as a call from scammers claiming that a package in her name containing illicit drugs had been delivered to Thailand swiftly escalated into a nearly one-and-a-half-day-long call, with cyber crooks recording her nude and blackmailing her for ransom by threatening to sell the clipping on the dark web.
The layer, who works at a private firm, lost money to the tune of Rs 14.57 lakh over the call that lasted for around 35 hours, from 2.15 pm on April 3 to 1.15 am on April 5.
A complaint in this regard was registered at the Bengaluru East division cybercrime police station.
How FedEx Scammer Cheated The Woman?
The victim received a call from a person claiming to be from the customer care of Fedex, an international courier giant, who told her the parcel had been returned and she had to speak to the customer care executive.
The executive told her the parcel contained five passports, three credit cards and 140 synthetic narcotics (MDMA) sent from Mumbai to Thailand in her name.
She was told since the parcel contained narcotics, it was on hold and if it has not been placed by her then she should reach out to the cyber crime team in Mumbai to register a complaint of ID theft.
“After I confirmed that yes, I wanted to make an identity theft complaint, they transferred my call to the cybercrime team in Mumbai. The cybercrime team asked me to download Skype and enter an email ID to chat with them,” she said in her complaint.
They then asked her about the ‘illegal parcel’ and her Aadhaar card details.
The ‘cybercrime team’ then said they would speak to higher authorities.
“I was then informed that my Aadhaar card was on high alert for human trafficking and drugs. After this, the Skype call was transferred to an alleged senior CBI officer named Abhishek Chauhan where I was asked to switch on the camera and start a conversation,” the complainant said.
The ‘CBI officer’ informed her that there was a case of human trafficking, money laundering and identity theft, she said.
“They kept grilling me about my bank account details such as my existing balance, my annual CTC, my monthly income and my investments. I gave them all the needed information,” the victim told police.
She was forced to take an oath not to disclose any details with anyone until the investigation was completed as this was a ‘highly sensitive case.’
The victim was prevented from speaking to her parents and police and told to cooperate with them because “there were police and politicians involved in this case.”
She was asked to remain online with the camera on and share her screen so that they could check whether she called or texted anyone. “For an entire day, I was watched even during the night. I was asked to keep the camera on and sleep,” she said in her complaint.
On April 4, she was asked to transfer Rs 10,78,993 from her bank account to the account holder named Nithin Joseph, which she diligently did. Further, they made two separate transactions of Rs 2.04 lakh and Rs 1.74 lakh on Amazon on April 5.
On the pretext of conducting ‘narcotic tests’, she was forced to strip and pose on camera, the woman said in the complaint. She alleged she was threatened to continue doing it or else she and her family would be arrested in a drug case.
“The alleged officer later blackmailed me that if I don’t give him Rs 10 lakh by 3 pm on April 5, he will sell her video to multiple people including the dark web,” she said in her complaint.
FedEx Issues Statement
International Courier giant FedEx on Wednesday said it never requests personal information through unsolicited phone calls, mails or email for its shipped goods.
“FedEx does not request personal information through unsolicited phone calls, mail, or email for goods being shipped or held, unless requested or initiated by customers,” it said in a statement. “If any individual receives any suspicious phone calls or messages, they are advised not to provide their personal information. Instead, they should immediately contact the local law enforcement authorities within the vicinity or report to the cybercrime department of the Government of India,” the courier company said.
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