'Your Parcel Has Drugs': How This Bengaluru Man Was Scammed Out Of Rs 1.52 Crore

A resident of Bengaluru, Karnataka, who is a senior citizen, recently experienced a big loss of Rs 1.52 crore due to falling prey to a courier scam. In this scam, impostors posing as police officials or NCRB agents contact individuals, falsely accusing them of engaging in illicit activities related to sending and receiving parcels containing ‘illegal substances.’ The incidence of this scam has been escalating since the beginning of the year, and becoming increasingly prevalent in recent times.

According to Indian Express, the victim, Debashish Das, 66, received a phone call on November 10 from a person who claimed to be a FedEx employee named Kartikeya. The employee then informed Das that a case had been registered against him in Mumbai because a courier sent in his name to Taiwan was found to contain six credit cards, expired passports, and even 950g of MDMA drugs.

Now, this is quite similar to the case we reported on in July this year when Keka De, a woman based out of Bengaluru, received a fake call from FedEx Mumbai.

Regarding Das’ case, he was told to get in touch with the Andheri cybercrime police station in Mumbai on a Skype call. When he eventually did, a fake police officer, Pradeep Sawant, told him that bank accounts in his name were found to be involved in illegal activity involving money laundering.

Then, a person pretending to be the ‘DCP’ told Das to close all his fixed deposits and transfer all his savings to an account that he shared.

This is where things went south. Debashish Das did eventually transfer a whopping Rs 1.52 crore from his SBI bank account to the scammer’s account in Punjab National Bank. The scammers had assured Das that they would transfer back the funds to the source after verifying if he was involved in money laundering. However, once they received the funds, the fake police officers disappeared, and communication ceased. Since then, a case has been registered at the South CEN police station.

It must be noted that this scam is quite prevalent these days, and due to the serious nature of the accusations these scammers make, the victims tend to lose their cool and end up believing them, causing heavy monetary losses. 

Readers are advised to check with the website of courier companies or online shopping platforms before falling for these scams. Just for information, customs in India don’t work over phone calls, WhatsApp calls or Skype. Neither will customs ask for UPI payments or online fund transfers.