64-year-old man loses ₹2.5 crore to drugs-in-parcel con

A 64-year-old MD was cheated of ₹2.5 crore by cyber fraudsters posing as CBI & Mumbai police officers, alleging contraband in a parcel sent to Thailand.

A 64-year-old managing director of a construction company was cheated to the tune of ₹2.5 crore by cyber fraudsters posing as Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Mumbai cyber police officers.

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The police said the fraudsters called the complainant saying a parcel he had supposedly sent to Thailand contained contraband. They later posed as CBI and cyber police officials asked him to transfer 50% of the money in his bank accounts to them until they verified the source of his income.

The Mumbai police’s cyber wing has registered a case against unknown people under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 384 (extortion), and 420 (cheating), among others, of the IPC and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.

On April 4, the complainant, a 64-year-old Juhu resident, got a call from a person posing as a courier company executive who told him that the Customs department had caught a parcel he sent to Thailand, said a police officer. The parcel had credit cards, clothes, a laptop, a passport and 40 grams of Mephedrone, the person told the complainant, adding that the matter would have to be reported to the cyber crime department. The caller disregarded the complainant’s pleas that he hadn’t sent any such parcel.

“Soon, a person who identified himself as Rajat Patel called and told the complainant that he was an officer from the Mumbai cyber crime branch. He told the complainant that his documents and his identity were used to carry out cheating throughout the country,” said the police officer. The complainant was then asked to speak to two other people posing as CBI officials. “They sent him a forged letter on the CBI’s letterhead stating that the central agency had found several bank accounts in his name and the accounts were used for money laundering and drug trafficking,” said the police officer.

The accused then asked the complainant to transfer 50% of the money in his bank accounts to them, stating that they would verify the source of the money and return it. The complainant then transferred a total of ₹2.5 crore to the accused persons’ accounts, the officer added.

The accused then told the complainant that all charges against him were dropped, but he would have to pay ₹30 lakh more as a security deposit. When he asked them to take the money from the ₹2.5 crore he had sent them, they said they would have to check that with their seniors. They then started avoiding his calls asking for the refund, which is when he realised he had been defrauded and reported the matter to the police.

“We have registered the case after due verification, and the investigation is ongoing. As the amount is high, the case has been transferred to the cyber crime branch of the Mumbai police,” said the police officer.