Another case resembling the recent major cyber fraud incident in Delhi has emerged in Mumbai, where an IT professional was allegedly deceived by cyber criminals posing as officials from the narcotics department. The fraudsters claimed that her Aadhaar number was linked to criminal bank accounts, resulting in a loss of Rs 1.97 lakh. The victim filed a complaint with the police after discovering the scam. Similarly, in the Delhi cybercrime case, the criminals pretended to be from the “Maharashtra narcotics division” and initiated contact with the victim regarding a “seized FedEx package.”
In this Mumbai case, the victim received a call from an unknown person claiming to represent a courier company. The caller informed her that her parcel bound for Taiwan was facing difficulties. When the victim denied sending any such parcel, the caller advised her to report the incident to the police, as it supposedly contained passports, credit cards, and narcotics. The call was then transferred to another person posing as a police officer from the “narcotics department.”
The impersonator asked for the victim’s Aadhaar number, asserting that it was linked to criminal bank accounts. To resolve the matter, he instructed her to download the Skype app. The victim complied and was provided with the caller’s app ID, which included ‘narcotics department’ in the username. Through Skype, the fraudster presented photos of offenders allegedly connected to the victim’s Aadhaar number. This modus operandi is similar to the Delhi case, where the criminals conducted Skype calls, impersonating various authorities such as Andheri police station, RBI officials, Mumbai Police DCP, customs officials, and narcotics division officers.
The impersonator then sent a letter mentioning the ‘narcotics department’ and asked the victim to disclose her bank account details. He instructed her to deposit Rs 98,888 from two accounts for verification, assuring that the amount would be returned after the process.
