Bengaluru woman falls prey to courier fraud, loses ₹51 lakh after being kept on ‘digital arrest’ for 10 hours: Report | Bengaluru

A 31-year-old product marketing head at a multinational company in Bengaluru was allegedly scammed out of ₹51.29 lakh by cybercriminals posing as FedEx and Mumbai police officials. The victim received an automated call on September 17, where the caller claimed her Aadhaar details were being used in a narcotics smuggling operation, The Indian Express reported.

She was coerced into a 10-hour Skype call, during which the scammers repeatedly threatened her with arrest if she did not cooperate.

The criminals, posing as law enforcement officers, informed her that a parcel containing drugs had been seized and her identity was being misused. They then transferred her to a fake Mumbai cybercrime officer, who claimed her Aadhaar was linked to illegal activities, the report said.

The scammers convinced her to stay on the video call and isolated her from family, including her husband, while they took out a ₹50 lakh loan from her ICICI bank account without her authorization, the publication noted.

The criminals drained ₹1.99 lakh from her salary account and transferred the rest of the loan amount to various other accounts. One of the scammers even impersonated a senior police officer, claiming her Aadhaar details were linked to serious crimes such as money laundering and arms purchases, the report added. He sent her a fake Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) document to maintain her silence.

Based on her complaint that was filed on September 21, police have registered a case under sections 66(c) and 66(d) of the Information Technology Act and section 318 (4) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Courier firm FedEx had earlier clarified that it does not request personal information through unsolicited calls and urged people to report such incidents to authorities immediately, especially after frequent incidents of courier scams in Bengaluru.