A 31-year-old product marketing head in Bengaluru fell victim to a sophisticated scam, losing ₹51.29 lakh to cybercriminals impersonating FedEx and Mumbai police officials. The incident occurred after she received an automated call on September 17, falsely alleging that her Aadhaar details were linked to a narcotics smuggling operation.
The scammers kept the woman on a 10-hour “digital arrest” via a Skype call, during which they threatened her with arrest if she did not comply. They claimed that a parcel containing drugs had been seized in her name and that her identity was being misused. Transferred to a fake Mumbai cybercrime officer, she was told her Aadhaar was involved in illegal activities.
During this harrowing ordeal, the scammers isolated her from her family, including her husband. They managed to take out a ₹50 lakh loan from her ICICI bank account without authorization and drained ₹1.99 lakh from her salary account, transferring the funds to various accounts. One scammer even impersonated a senior police officer, presenting a fake Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) document to silence her.
Following her complaint filed on September 21, police registered a case under sections 66(c) and 66(d) of the Information Technology Act and section 318 (4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
FedEx has reiterated that it never requests personal information through unsolicited calls and urged individuals to report such scams to the authorities, especially amid rising incidents of courier-related fraud in Bengaluru.
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