CHENNAI : At least 390 people in the state have become victims of ‘FedEx’ scam in the past two months, said the Cyber Crime Police in a press statement on Friday. Explaining the scam’s modus operandi, the police said the fraudsters first contact individuals and falsely claim to be calling from the FedEx company. They would say that a parcel containing illegal items, was received in the individual’s name.
“Subsequently, the individual is connected to someone posing as a Mumbai cyber crime police officer via video call. Then the victim is sent a photo and asked to confirm whether the person in the picture is familiar to him or her,” the note read.
After the victim claims to have no connection with the person in the photo, the false officer says that the person is an arrested criminal, who had claimed that the victim had let the criminal use his or her bank accounts for money laundering for a 10% commission.
Then the call is forwarded to another person who claims to be an RBI official and asks the victim to transfer a huge amount to a particular account so that he can check the veracity of the victim’s transactions.
Once the victim completes the transaction, the scammer disconnects the call and becomes virtually invisible. Any digital communication related to the scam, such as Skype messages, is deleted to avoid detection, the press note added. To register cyber crime complaints, dial 1930 or visit www.cybercrime.gov.in.