‘Drugs in parcel’ fraud: Money trail leads to cyber crime masterminds in Dubai, China, Taiwan operating via crypto

In such cases, the cyber criminals initially pose as executives of an international courier company and later as senior police officers – at times, even misusing the names of serving IPS officers and investigation agencies like the cyber crime cell, anti-narcotics cell, CBI, Enforcement Directorate (ED), Customs and in some cases, the Reserve Bank of India.

Officers said the “drugs in parcel” frauds are being reported from across India with many cases being probed by police in Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Bengaluru, along with Pune. In one of the largest such scams, a Delhi-based doctor was cheated for Rs 4.5 crore using the name of an IPS officer from Mumbai.

A team from the Cyber crime police station of Pune City recently got a breakthrough in one of cases they are investigating in which a woman lost Rs 3lakh in June to cyber criminals who told her a parcel was sent in her name to Taiwan and 140 grams of Mephedrone was found in it. Names of two serving IPS officers from Maharashtra cadre were misused by cyber criminals who threatened her of legal action if she did not pay the money. The cyber criminals also posed as CBI officers to threaten the complainant woman, who works as a business analyst with a Pune based private firm.

During the investigation of this particular case, the team led by Senior Inspector Minal Supe Patil recently arrested two money mules — suspects who provided and operated fraudulent bank accounts which were used by the Cyber criminals to receive the transfer from the woman complainant. The first alleged money mule identified as Naresh Jain alias Sureshbhai Desai was arrested from Saswad area of Pune close to three weeks ago. Based on the leads obtained from him, another money mule Azhar Atikh Khan was arrested from Delhi on December 8.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Senior Inspector Supe Patil said, “Our investigation has revealed that while the network of fraudulent bank accounts is operated by money mules based in India, these scams are masterminded and executed by top tier cyber criminals based outside India. After these funds are received in the first chain of fraudulent accounts, they are moved around in multiple accounts to make them difficult to trace, before ultimately being used to buy cryptocurrency which lands outside India. Our probe suggests that these funds ultimately land with top tier cyber criminals who are based in China, Dubai and Taiwan. The complex money trail, multiple fraud accounts used for juggling the money and money finally landing abroad, make these investigations a challenge. Such money trail is also observed in the cases of task frauds.”

The cases of ‘drugs in parcel’ scams begin with the victims getting a call from people posing as executives of international courier services. They tell the victims that a parcel has been sent in their name to places like Dubai or Taiwan. In none of these cases victims had sent any parcels to anyone nor were they expecting any parcel. The victims are then told that drugs — like MDMA or Mephedrone along with multiple passports of the same person and unaccounted foreign currency have been detected in their parcels and that their case is being referred to by the police. According to investigators, in the cases that Pune police have probed, the Cyber criminals have said the victim’s cases were being referred to Mumbai Cyber crime cell or Mumbai narcotics cell and then to the ED, CBI or Customs.

The cyber criminals then ask victims to come to a Skype chat and communicate with a profile that has the image with an emblem of police or other investigating agency.

The fraudsters talk to victims using names of IPS officers actually serving with Maharashtra police and other agencies and make the victims transfer funds on various pretexts. Investigation has revealed criminals have used the name of IPS officers who have served in the area of Cyber crime and narcotics, so when the victims search the names, they do find references online, making them further believe the lie, investigators have said.

In these cases, the investigator said, the fraudsters ask money on varied pretexts. “In some other cases, they say that charges like customs clearance, legal fees are to be paid and threaten to arrest them if these fees are not paid. And in some cases they say that the bank accounts of the victims are vulnerable to attack by hackers and all the funds should be transferred to a ‘safe account’ provided by the fraudsters. In these cases callers say victims are under surveillance and their phone calls are being traced,” an officer said.