Cyber fraudsters dupe senior citizen of Rs 24.58 lakh

Hyderabad: A 62-year-old retiree was duped of Rs 24.58 lakh by cyber fraudsters who posed as the officers of a courier company and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). The victim, a resident of Secunderabad, in his complaint, stated that he received a phone call from a fraudster who posed as a courier company manager and told him that narcotics were found in a parcel sent by the victim to Iran.

The caller claimed that the victim had dispatched 20 kg of diabetic drugs along with 100 grams of MDMA to Dr Arman Ali in Iran through the courier. When the victim denied this, the fraudster said they had informed the NCB about the transaction and provided him with a FIR number.

The fraudster then connected the victim with an associate who posed as an NCB officer and interrogated him. A woman then asked the victim to wait a few more minutes to speak with a deputy commissioner of police (DCP) from cybercrime, police said.

Throughout the ordeal, the victim repeatedly asked for their for credentials and details to verify their identity. The fraudsters shared some identity cards but later deleted all correspondence. The individuals, dressed as police officers, threatened the victim for more than six hours, pressuring him until he transferred Rs 24,58,000 from all savings and fixed deposits (FDs), to an “RBI account”.

The fraudsters claimed to know all the details about the victim’s bank accounts and forced him to disclose the balance of his FDs and bank accounts in different banks. They coerced him into transferring a sum of falsely promising that the money would be refunded after verification within 10 minutes. Police have begun investigations.