Mumbai: A 36-year-old actress has fallen prey to an online courier fraud and lost Rs5.79 lakh. The fraudster falsely claimed that drugs were found in her parcel and implicated her three bank accounts in money laundering cases, deceiving her.
According to the DN Nagar police, Anjali Patil, 36, who works in Marathi, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil movies and resides at Gilbort Hill Road, Andheri West, received a call from an unknown number who claimed to be Deepak Sharma, an employee of FedEx Courier company on December 28. Sharma informed her that a parcel in her name bound for Taiwan contained drugs, leading to its seizure by the customs department. He claimed that her Aadhar card’s copy was found inside the parcel. Patil was told that her Aadhar card was misused and advised to consult with the Mumbai cyber crime department.
One Of The Scammers Posed As Mumbai Cyber Crime Department Officer
Shortly after, she received another call via Skype from a person claiming to be Officer Banerjee from the Mumbai cyber crime department. Banerjee falsely told her that her Aadhar card was connected to three bank accounts implicated in money laundering cases. Further, he demanded a processing fee of Rs96,525 for the verification process, which she paid via Gpay to the number provided by the fraudster. While still on the Skype call, Banerjee claimed that bank officials might be involved in the money laundering scam, requesting Rs4,83,291 for further investigation. Without hesitation, she promptly transferred the amount from her Axis bank account to a Punjab national bank account as instructed.
Subsequently, she shared the incident with her landlord, who confirmed her suspicions. Consequently, she realised that she had fallen into the scam and filed a case with the police on December 29.
The case was filed against two unidentified persons under sections 419 (cheating), and 420 (cheating and dishonesty) of the Indian Penal Code along with relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
FedEx Issues Statement
FedEx has provided an official statement regarding an online scam using the name of their company. "FedEx does not request personal information through unsolicited phone calls, mail, or email for goods being shipped or held, unless requested or initiated by customers. If any individual receives any suspicious phone calls or messages, they are advised not to provide their personal information. Instead, they should immediately contact the local law enforcement authorities within the vicinity or report to the cybercrime department of the government of India," said the logistics company in their statement.
