Drugs in parcel fraud: Victims lost Rs 1 crore to scammers in Andhra
VIJAYAWADA: The Cybercrime wing of Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (APCID) detected a new style of scam where the fraudsters are found to have extorted huge amounts by threatening the victims in the name of Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials, claiming that they have found drugs in the parcels they have ordered. As many as four such cases were reported at various places across the State in which the victims lost around Rs 1 crore to the cyber criminals.
Explaining the modus operandi of these criminals, APCID cybercrime superintendent of police (SP) V Harshavardhan Raju said that the gang members target a section of people and collect the details of a person such as Aadhar card, PAN card and mobile number. Once they have the sufficient information, one of the gang members will approach the victim through a phone call and intimate that a parcel was booked in his/her name from an unknown location and upon inspection they have found drugs or passports in the said parcel.
The accused further threaten the victim of registering cases under NDPS Act and Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA Act) and he alone creates a situation for the victim to negotiate with the officer by connecting to another person, who claims to be their superior officer. “Taking advantage of the situation, they demand money ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh to close the case and stop further proceedings,” he added.
The SP further told the public to be aware of such gangs and asked them to report such incidents to cybercrime police through the toll-free number ‘1930’.