MANGALURU: An elderly woman has lost Rs 3.9 crore in a cyber scam in which fraudsters, posing as employees of a post office, convinced her that she was under a ‘digital arrest’ for ‘sending a parcel containing MDMA’.
Over a period of seven months, the victim was coerced into transferring the money to obtain a ‘no objection certificate’ to clear her name.
The ordeal began on 15 January this year when the victim, a retired employee, received a missed call from an unknown number. When she called back, the caller, a woman claiming to be an employee at the General Post Office, said that a parcel containing 150g of MDMA, which the victim had sent to China, had been returned. The caller further warned that the offence carried a jail term of “75 years or above”.
When the victim said she had not sent any parcel, the fraudster told her that the parcel was sent in her name using her ID card. The scammer then convinced the victim that she would help her and collected her personal details. She allegedly asked the victim to pay 93% of her pension to obtain the no-objection certificate.
The fraudsters maintained constant contact with the victim, warned her not to discuss the matter with anyone, and manipulated her psychologically.
Two days later, the victim came to Mangaluru and transferred ₹55 lakh via RTGS to various bank accounts provided by the scammers. From 17 January to 4 July, she was forced to transfer funds multiple times, amounting to ₹3.9 crore in total.
The fraud only came to light when there was no response from the scammers. Realising that she had been conned, the victim lodged a complaint with the CEN police.