Bengaluru techie duped of Rs 2.24 crore by fraudsters posing as Customs officials

BENGALURU: A techie lost Rs 2.24 crore to fraudsters who posed as Customs officials and claimed that a package, in his name, containing passports, ATM cards and MDMA drugs, had been seized at Delhi.

The fraudster called Kumarasamy Sivakkumar on March 18 posing as a Customs official and told him that a parcel registered using Sivakkumar’s Aadhaar number, bound for Malaysia from Delhi, had been seized as it contained 16 passports, 58 ATM cards and 140 gm of MDMA drugs.

The fraudster also threatened thim that Anti-Narcotics Bureau and the CBI would take up the case and sought his cooperation. The fraudster also got him to download Skype and send messages and made video calls on WhatsApp. The techie then transferred a total of Rs 2,24.05,000 to eight different bank accounts. When he realised that he had been cheated, Sivakkumar lodged a complaint with the cyber crime police.

Deputy Commissioner of Police B M Laxmi Prasad.

Deputy Commissioner of Police B M Laxmi Prasad said, “The victim of the cyber fraud works with a startup in Bengaluru. The fraudsters posed as Customs officials and threatened him that foreign currency, illegal passports and drugs had been seized from the package registered using his Aadhaar card”.

“They asked him to visit Delhi or offered to connect him to the cyber crime police in Mumbai. Another accused, who was in uniform, then contacted him over Skype. They got the techie to transfer Rs 2.24 crore to different accounts in multiple transactions. They also contacted him on WhatsApp”, he added.

The DCP also cautioned citizens that no government official makes video calls on Skype or WhatsApp or demands for money. “Notices are issues and the person is summoned to the police station. It is illegal for government officials to demand money. People should immediately get in touch with the local police”, he noted.