A Delhi woman doctor became a victim of what is being seen as the biggest phishing scam on an individual in Delhi to date. According to a report by TOI, some fraudsters claiming to be from Maharashtra Narcotics Department duped the doctor of Rs 4.47 crores.
The fraudsters posed as police officials from the Andheri police station, RBI officials, a DCP from Mumbai Police, customs sleuths, and Narcotics division cops in order to defraud the victim.
The 34-year-old woman doctor was told that a large quantity of MDMA drug has been detected in a FedEx courier linked to her. The fraudsters took the victim on a Skype call and a web of lies was spun around her to deceive her. She was coerced into ‘temporarily’ handing over the entire money in her account.
The woman who fell right into the trap laid by the fraudsters landed up losing a whopping sum of Rs 4.5 crores.
Narrating the sequence of events which led to her falling right into the trap laid by the fraudsters, the victim told TOI that it started with her receiving a call on May 5, Friday at 10.39 am from an unknown number regarding her FedEx parcel that had been ‘seized.’ She was asked to dial 1 to get more details about what actually happened.
The victim said that the caller claimed the parcel consists of her passport, two pair of shoes, bank documents, clothes, and 140 grams of MDMA. The fraudsters claimed that the parcel was to go from Mumbai to Taiwan and was booked on April 21, 2023, and a charge of Rs 25,025 plus GST was paid via an ICICI credit card.
The woman denied having any knowledge of the courier. The callers then asked her to register a complaint with the Andheri police station and directed her call to ‘Inspector’ Smita Patel from Andheri East Police Station. Since the victim was in Delhi, inspector Patil suggested she file a complaint online. She was asked to download the Skype app.
Scamsters intimidated the Delhi woman doctor by claiming her ID was used to open 23 bank accounts in Mumbai and was flagged for money laundering
The fraudster posing as Inspector Patil called the victim on Skype. The victim revealed how the so-called inspector pretended to talk to her colleague to find out whether her Aadhar was being misused. The victim said she overheard the person on the other side claiming that her ID was used to open 23 bank accounts in Mumbai and was flagged for money laundering.
The victim recalled that the so-called inspector then threatened her saying that she would be investigated for multiple criminal offences. She told her that she would be put under arrest.
The victim was then ordered to provide screenshots of all her bank accounts with balances and to reveal all of her financial information down to the last rupee. Left completely flabbergasted and devastated by what was happening to her, she kept following the instructions and shared these screenshots via Skype.
The fraudsters then directed her to break her fixed deposits in order for them to be seized and verified. The woman first broke her FD worth Rs 1.15 crore and then was asked to go to the branch at Gopinath Bazar for breaking the rest. The woman was also told not to involve others, including her husband because they would be considered accomplices to the crime.
Following that, another cop claiming to be DCP Bal Singh Rajput took over the conversation and requested her to fill out RTGS papers. She was also routed to a new Skype ID allegedly belonging to the “Maharashtra narcotics division.” Another official, purportedly from the Reserve Bank of India, also joined in.
Scamsters sent complaint on the letterhead of the Mumbai Police to convince their legitimacy
The woman was told that the money in her account, which they said was the proceeds of crime, would be transferred to RBI and then returned after verification. Along with a letter from the RBI, she received a complaint on the letterhead of the Mumbai Police. The woman was then forced to make a Rs 1 crore RTGS transaction and share a screenshot with the swindlers. She later sent another Rs 90 lakh.
The woman was compelled to take her husband’s signatures, break the joint FDs, and then transfer the money to them. She was told to sit back and wait for the RBI to issue a clearance report on whether the money was legitimate.
The victim further stated that the fraudsters told her that they would grant her a new Aadhar ID because her old one had been permanently disabled. They also asked her to delete all of her Skype interactions.
The woman waited until May 9 convinced that the money was not drug money, but the “Mumbai narcotics division” never reverted. “RBI and Andheri police stations” also vanished from the scene.
Finally, the woman was given two “clearance certificates” confirming that her accounts were in order and that no unlawful activities had been identified.
Realising that she had fallen prey to cyber fraud, the woman doctor approached the Delhi police, which in turn, filed an FIR and started investigating the issue.
Online scams, often known as internet scams, have been an issue since the early days of the internet, but they have become more prevalent over time, with scammers constantly developing new ways to defraud people. Worryingly, our smartphones have increased our vulnerability to these attacks. In an attempt to collect financial or other vital personal information, cybercriminals may approach potential victims via personal or business email accounts, social networking sites, dating apps, or other techniques. Many effective online scams have the same outcome: the victim loses their money.
In January this year, we reported about a Twitter user Geetika Rustagi who also narrated how she fell prey to one such online scam.
