Man outsmarts courier scammers by walking into police station: ‘He hung up’

One man refused to fall prey to the old courier scam and even managed to outsmart the scammers in the process.

One of the oldest scams in the books is the fake courier scam, where scammers call up people and inform them that a parcel with illegal items, like drugs, has been traced to their name. Eventually, the call gets transferred to people impersonating police officers or officials of the customs department, who in turn extort money from vulnerable victims. There have been innumerable cases of such scams, with people losing their life savings to these scammers.

How one man outsmarted scammers, with a little help from police (Representative Image)(RAJ K RAJ /HT PHOTO)

One man, however, refused to fall prey to this age-old swindling racket and even managed to outsmart the scammers in the process.

Man outsmarts scammers

X user Shubham shared a thread on how he managed to outsmart fraudsters posing as Delhi Police officials.

Shubham said he received a phone call informing him that a courier under his name, being sent to Malaysia, had been found to have MDMA, fake passports and debit cards.

The scammer identified himself as one Sumit Mishra of the Delhi customs department.

Shubham said he did not hang up or confront the scammer despite being well aware of the popular scam. Instead, he played along and asked which idiot would courier drugs under his own name.

The scammer told him that in order to stop the courier, he would have to complain to the Delhi Police. “I told him I will register the complaint online but he insisted that I must call the number he gave me,” Shubham said.

Shubham called the number provided and it was picked up by a man who claimed to be a Commissioner of Police in South Delhi.

“I called the number and a man picked up and told me he is Sunil Kumar, head constable from Vasant Kunj, Delhi Police. Then he told me that he will video call me and want everything in video that the courier doesn’t belongs to me,” wrote Shubham.

By now, Shubham had grown weary of talking to scammers. Instead of going to office, he walked into the nearest police station.

Here, he explained what was happening to the officer on duty. When the scammer video-called him, Shubham simply handed his phone over to the real police officer.

The scammer hung up immediately.

“I know not all people know that this can be a scam as not once he asked any OTP or any other personal details, some might think this is genuine & the person video called was also in police uniform so its easy to get fooled, I hope people are more aware of this & save their money,” Shubham cautioned.