Mumbai-based physiotherapist falls victim to fake parcel scam, loses Rs 4.5 lakh

The Mahim police are investigating the case.

The complainant, a physiotherapist, runs a health centre in Dadar. She told the police that a recorded message was playing in the call which said that the Lucknow Customs department had received a parcel in the complainant’s name. The said parcel contains some illegal articles (18 passports and 58 ATM cards). The message then asked the woman to press 9 for more details.

Out of curiosity, the woman pressed 9 and the call got connected to one Ajay Gupta, who identified himself as a Customs officer from Lucknow.

He told the woman that her name, mobile number, and Aadhaar card details are printed on a parcel and if she has not ordered the parcel, she should lodge a complaint with them.

Gupta then connected her with one Deepak Kumar, who identified himself as a police officer from the “emergency department”.

Kumar made the woman download Skype on her mobile phone and told her that henceforth they would be in contact through Skype. He also asked her to save his number as Lucknow police.

During the interaction, Kumar told the woman that she was not involved in the crime and that her Aadhaar card number was misused. Kumar further informed her that he is calling the CBI headquarters to check if there are other cases registered against her Aadhaar card, the woman told the police.

The woman heard Kumar speaking to someone over walkie-talkie and the person, apparently from the CBI headquarters, telling him that there are several cases registered against the said Aadhaar card and soon the woman would be arrested, the FIR added.

The woman got scared. Kumar then asked her to speak to his senior, Anil Yadav. Yadav sent her a notice with an emblem on it and told her that an inquiry is on against her. He also sent her two more notices, the ‘Asset Seizure Order’ and the ‘Arrest Warrant’, on Skype, the police said.

Yadav further told her that she has been booked in a fraud case involving Rs 3.50 crore and to get anticipatory bail in the said matter, she would have to pay 10 per cent of it.

After the complainant told him that she did not have that much money, Yadav insisted that she should at least pay 1 per cent immediately, she said in her statement to the police.

Following this, she deposited Rs 4.5 lakh in a bank account provided by the cybercriminals.

The woman, meanwhile, informed her friend, who is a lawyer, about the incident, who told her that she was conned.

After waiting for a few weeks, the woman filed a police complaint on Saturday.

The police have registered a case against three persons under 120B (criminal conspiracy), 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and 66C (identity theft) and 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resources) of the Information Technology Act.

The police have sought information from the bank about the details of the beneficiary accounts and have also sought details of the suspects from the mobile app service provider, said a police officer.