KOCHI : Online fraudsters have swindled a woman in Mundamveli out of Rs 97,000 in a courier-linked phishing scam. While similar cases of cheating have emerged from other parts of the country, this would be the first such incident reported in Kochi.
Palluruthy police have registered a case and launched a probe. According to officers, the deception was set in motion when the victim sent a courier to her daughter in Tamil Nadu on January 15. Two days later, the complainant received a call from an unknown number claiming that her courier was received by a person in New Delhi.
“The courier was sent from Mundamveli post office. The victim was surprised when the package was wrongly delivered to New Delhi. However, the caller promised to re-route the courier to her daughter’s address and sought Rs 9 for the same,” an officer said.
A few minutes later, she received a WhatsApp message containing a link. She was asked to make the payment of Rs 9 using the link. On clicking the link an app was installed on her mobile phone. Using the app, the victim made the payment by accessing her UPI account. A few days later the courier was delivered to her daughter.
The victim, however, realised the fraud 10 days later when she checked her bank account. “I found that along with the Rs 9, another Rs 96,990 had been transferred to the same account on January 22. On contacting her bank, she was told the fund transfer was made online. This is when she approached the police,” the officer said.
Palluruthy police registered a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust. Officers suspect that fraudsters came to know about the courier after the victim searched for the delivery status on a bogus website. The investigation is centred around the bank account to which the money was transferred.
“Courier-related online scams are on the rise across India. Usually, fraudsters extort money from victims claiming that drugs or hawala money were recovered from packages. There have been cases of cyber fraudsters posing as delivery boys contacting victims and demanding that they to pay service charges through an online link sent by them for receiving parcels,” an officer said.