E-Paper
Drugs-in-courier case: Pune student, mother fall prey to fraudster, lose ₹53 lakh
The fraudsters threatened them to make money transfers to avoid prosecution and stated that drugs were found in her courier
A 25-year-old PhD student and her mother have been duped of ₹53.63 lakh after they fell prey to online fraudsters pretending to be police officials. The fraudsters threatened them to make money transfers to avoid prosecution and stated that drugs were found in her courier, said officials on Wednesday. The victim resides in Deccan area.
The student received a call on July 5 from a person claiming that her parcel had illegal drugs and she had to face legal action for it. On the same day, the person arranged a skype call with an officer from the Mumbai police department, who threatened the victim stating that a case against her was registered with his police station for banned drugs and money laundering and illegal foreign transactions, according to police officials.
The fraudsters then told her that they found illegal foreign money transactions in her account and asked her to transfer the money from her account to another account for verification. In order to avoid further legal action, the student transferred ₹53.63 lakh, said officials.
According to police, the victim received the first call at 9 am and at around 2.30 pm she transferred the money. During the call, the victim’s mother also participated, but transactions were done via the victim’s bank account
Chandrashekhar Swant, police inspector at cyber police station said, “Accused threatened the student over illegal drugs in her parcel and money laundering. To avoid further police action, the woman transferred ₹53.63 lakh in various online transactions, and later realised she was duped.’’
As per initial investigation, the bank account was operated from Rajasthan and police are getting more details about transactions of that particular account, said officials.
After preliminary investigation, an FIR was registered at cyber police station on August 8 under IPC sections 419, 420, 170 and sections 66 C, 66 D of the Information Technology Act.
Past case
Earlier last month, a similar case was reported, wherein a 59-year-old woman from Karve Nagar was duped of ₹20.81 lakh. The accused said they found illegal things in her parcel and found illegal money transactions in her account. The woman had transferred ₹20.81 lakh in 15 online transactions to avoid legal action.
