New Courier Delivery Scam: Woman Pays Rs 5 To Receive Order, Ends Up Losing Rs 80,000

Scams of all kinds have been running rampant in India. Not only have scammers become increasingly sophisticated, but they have also started using novel techniques to gain the trust of potential victims.

While we have seen scams like job scams on Telegram and WhatsApp, and even the fake army officer scam, wherein fraudsters posing as defense personnel get in touch with you on brokering and used goods marketplaces, the courier delivery scam has mostly gone under the radar–in which–fraudsters masquerading as delivery agents send you malicious links. This is exactly what happened with a woman based in Mohali, Punjab.

According to a TOI report, a woman named Shefali Chaudhary lost Rs 80,000 after she was told to send Rs 5 to receive a parcel. The scammer told the victim that she would have to send Rs 5 as “handling charges” to receive the parcel and even confirmed her address on the phone itself. The scammer ended up generating a payment link and asked the woman to pay Rs 5 on the same. However, when she went to do it, Rs 40,000 was deducted twice from her bank account, totaling Rs 80,000.

We have previously seen another version of this scam wherein scammers ask for OTPs to confirm or cancel a “courier” that you never ordered, and in doing so, they siphon off your hard-earned money.

How To Be Safe:

In order to be safe from scams of this nature, always remember that no official courier delivery would ask for “handling charges” prior to the delivery, and even if there were any, they are ideally paid before the courier is sent. So, always cross-check and verify with friends and family if someone had a pending order.

Moreover, if you receive foreign links on your device, never click on them, as they could potentially drain your account and may even inject malware into it—causing long-term harm.

Additionally, do not give out sensitive information such as Aadhar or driving licenses to random delivery agents, as this may cause a problem as well. And, as a general rule of thumb, remember if something is too good to be true, it usually is.