Nithin Kamath, co-founder of retail brokerage firm Zerodha, on Friday, June 23, posted a series of tweets, warning his followers about a scam in the name of established courier firms such as FedEx. Kamath stated in detail the modus operandi of the scamsters, who pose as officials from FedEx, Crime Branch and CBI, to dupe gullible victims. In the tweets, he stated that one of his colleagues fell victim to the scam and transferred money to the accused.
On the same day, a 30-year-old IISc PhD student received a similar call from fraudsters, claiming to be from FedEx, Mumbai Narcotics and CBI. The accused managed to extort around 1.34 lakh by deceiving her. The scholar made at least five online transactions to the account numbers of the accused, who threatened her with legal action if the money was not paid.
When the monetary demands kept increasing, the victim filed a complaint against the fraudsters at Sadashivanagar police station. She feared the gang would target her as they have all her personal information, including her bank details.
The PhD scholar, who stays at the New Girls Hostel on the IISc campus, filed a complaint at Sadashivanagar police station, around 2.30 pm Friday. She claims to have been cheated between 10.25 am and 2pm.
How it all started
In her complaint, the victim stated that around 10.25 am, she received a phone call from a person impersonating a FedEx employee, saying a package in her name had arrived, containing illegal items, and a case of identity theft had occurred.
“The complainant stated that the accused transferred her call to a Mumbai Narcotics Division officer, who asked her to join a Skype call to give her statements. The gang provided fake documents, claiming they had been sent from CBI and RBI. They also took her bank statements. She was then made to transfer Rs 1.34 lakh to a single bank account of a private bank. The victim sent the money in five transactions. She was also threatened with illegal supply of MDMA,” said an officer who is part of investigations based on the statement of the victim.
Police were contacting bank officials to freeze the transactions, and had collected phone numbers and bank account numbers of the accused, and are on the lookout for them.
A case was registered under IT Act 2000 along with extortion (IPC 384) and cheating (IPC 420) against the accused. Sadashivanagar police registered a case and are further investigating.
