Software engineer duped by cyber frauds

A software engineer was cheated out of ?1.98 lakh by cyber frauds posing as executives of an international courier company who claimed drugs were found in her parcel. The fraudsters later posed as cops and asked her to transfer money to their accounts on various pretexts.

MUMBAI: A 32-year software engineer was cheated to the tune of ₹1.98 lakh by cyber frauds. The police said the woman got a call from frauds posing as executives of an international courier company and told her that drugs were found in her parcel and later some of their associates came on the line, posing as cops they asked her to transfer the money to their bank accounts on various pretexts.

HT Image

The Byculla police have registered a case based on a complaint by a 32-year-old software engineer, working with a major IT company. The police said the woman, who resides in the Ghodapdeo area of Byculla, got a call on Tuesday from the courier company that told her they had stopped her courier and it had been returned.

“She was told that the parcel destined for Taiwan was found to contain five Aadhar cards, two credit cards and some drugs. She told the frauds that she had not sent any parcel to anybody, but the frauds told her to lodge an online complaint with the Narcotics Control Bureau regarding the same if the parcel was not hers,” said a police officer from Byculla police station.

Later, the frauds claimed to have transferred the call and some other person came on the line, posing as a police officer and told her to give her Aadhar card number. “They told her that her Aadhar card was linked to two suspected bank accounts. They then asked her to download Skype and showed that they had arrested some people to whose bank accounts her Aadhar card was linked,” said the police officer.

Responding to a query about the frauds, the woman told them that she had four bank accounts in all and then asked her to transfer some cash to one bank account given by them, stating that they would close all the other unauthorised bank accounts and return her money, said the police officer.

“They told her that she will get her money back in 30 minutes. However, she never got her money back when she realised, she was probably cheated and after discussing the issue with her family members approached the Byculla police where a case was registered for cheating, cheating by personation and under various sections of the Information Technology Act,” the police officer added.