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A Pune-based IT professional has been duped of Rs 27.9 lakh by online fraudsters posing as an officer of the Cyber Crime Cell of Mumbai police in the latest case of a “drug-in-parcel” scam.
The victim, 37, a resident of Wadgaon Budruk, lodged the First Information Report (FIR) in this case at the Sinhagad Road police station on Wednesday.
According to the police, an online fraudster claiming to be “Harshwardhan”, an officer from the Cyber Crime Cell of Mumbai police, contacted the complainant over the phone on November 11.
The fraudster told the complainant they had found 450 gram of banned drugs in a parcel sent from Mumbai to Taiwan with his name. The fraudster also said they had found the complainant’s expired passport and SBI card with the drugs.
When the complainant said he had not sent any such parcel to Taiwan, the fraudster sought his bank details saying they needed it for “verification”. The fraudster then warned of legal action and forced the complainant to transfer money into certain bank accounts to avoid being arrested in the drugs case.
The complainant then transferred Rs 27,98,776 into two different bank accounts through 10 online transactions, the police said. After realising that he had been cheated, the complainant approached the police.
Police inspector Jayant Rajurkar said, “A probe has been launched into the offence”.
The police have booked the unidentified online fraudsters in this case under sections 419, 420, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections of the IT Act. They are zeroing in on the cell phone used by the cyber fraudster to contact the complainant and the bank accounts to which he was asked to transfer his money.
A slew of ‘drug-in-parcel’ scam cases
The Pune police said there have been several such “drug-in-parcel” scam cases reported in the city in the past couple of years.
In a similar case, online fraudsters claiming to be the staff of a courier company and Mumbai police Crime Branch officer “Naresh Gupta” duped a 34-year-old man from Pune of Rs 3.26 lakh. The victim lodged the FIR at Yerwada police station on Wednesday.
The police said the fraudsters who called the victim over the phone in October this year, forwarded a fake Mumbai police identity card to him online.
Claiming to have intercepted drugs in a parcel sent in his name from Mumbai to Thailand, the fraudster asked the victim to transfer money to a bank account assuring him to issue a “no-objection certificate (NOC)” and “clear the case”. Fraudsters warned that if money was not transferred the victim may face arrest for sending the drug parcel.
Police inspector Jaydeep Gaikwad is investigating the case.
In August this year, a 25-year-old student of advertising was cheated of Rs 53 lakh by cybercriminals posing as courier company executives and police officers. They told her that drugs had been found in a parcel sent by her to Taiwan and extorted money from her on the pretext of avoiding legal action including arrest.
The police said the student was made to do as many as 34 transactions worth Rs 53.63 lakh from her and her mother’s bank accounts to various bank accounts as callers posing as police officers kept threatening her with arrest.
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