Beware: Courier Scam, Latest Scam in the Country
A new scam has seen light this year, where fraudsters are conning lakhs of rupees from the victims belonging to different cities. It is called Courier Scam
A new scam has seen light this year, where fraudsters are conning lakhs of rupees from the victims belonging to different cities. It is called Courier Scam in which the imposters pose as police officers, customs officials, or NCRB agents, and get in touch with the gullible casting aspersions on them for receiving parcels containing contraband like drugs and other banned substances.
The fraudsters make the victims believe that the police are going to take action against them and start extorting money to settle the complaints against them.
In many cases, the plot begins with a missed call. When the person returns the call, it is forwarded to an automated voice message informing that they reached the helpline of a courier company. Then a person posing as a police official or a customs officer uses psychological tactics to distress the victims and extract personal significant details like Aadhar number and other identification and bank details and go on to dupe money from them.
A Bengaluru resident, Debashish Das, aged 66, recently became a victim of a courier scam, resulting in a loss of Rs 1.52 crore. He received a phone call on November 10 from a person who claimed to be a FedEx employee.
He informed the victim that a case had been registered against him in Mumbai as a courier shipped from Taiwan, in his name was found to contain six credit cards, expired passports, and MDMA drugs. The victim was told to contact the Andheri cybercrime police station on a Skype call. Then the fraudsters posing as police officers told him that bank accounts in his name were found to be involved in illegal activity after which the scamsters managed to get all of the victim’s money, including his fixed deposits, worth Rs 1.52 crore transferred to their account.
According to the Indian Express, as many as 250 cases involving courier fraud have already been reported in Bengaluru this year. The article reports that in June 2023, a software engineer and his wife, a faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru fell prey to cyber fraud featuring fake policemen and courier service persons. An amount of Rs 33 lakh was lost by the engineer to these scamsters.
Last week, the Bengaluru police announced that the investigation of these cases, along with three other types of common cyber fraud – Aadhaar Enabled Payment Services fraud (116 cases), WhatsApp sextortion (115 cases), and online job fraud (4,607 cases) – would be prioritized for investigations.
Another incident narrated by Times of India, states a woman, who is the daughter of an employee in the High Court, also received a call from a person posing as a customs official from Mumbai. He threatened her and demanded Rs 30,000 from her. When she gave her credentials, he made away with Rs 19 lakh.
Telangana State Cyber Security Bureau also shared a post stating Beware of 'Courier scam'.
Be cautious of unsolicited calls or messages about parcel delivery which you have no idea about.
Do not respond to urgency or surrender to demands from the caller under pressure. Stay composed.
#Dial 1930 for immediate help. #CourierScam #TSCSB.
Forbes India also published stating that another elaborate and extremely sophisticated cybercrime scandal called the parcel scam is making rounds. This video was published on September 7, 2023 with a title ‘Scam alert! Avoid losing lakhs to the new parcel or courier scam.”
We all need to be vigilant and alert so that we don’t fall prey to these fraudsters.