FedEx’s Fraud Alert Fails: Bengaluru Woman Gets Scammed, Loses Rs 15 Lakh
A startling case of cyber fraud was witnessed in Bengaluru, wherein the fraudsters impersonated as FedEx employee and scammed a 29-year-old woman lawyer for Rs 15 lakh.
The incident took place on 3rd April when the victim received a call from the scammer who said to be from the department of Mumbai police and claimed to find about 140 grams of narcotic drugs that had arrived through FedEx from Thailand in her name.
The caller then connected the woman to another call which he mentioned was in regard to the probe with the ‘higher official’ in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The fraudsters made the woman believe that the investigation was real and a case of human trafficking along with money laundering had been registered against her.
This incident occurred despite FedEx's recent warning about such scams.
The company issued a public warning on the microblogging platform X. It said, “Be alert of scamsters pretending to call you from FedEx. FedEx does not call and connect you to law enforcement authorities regarding your shipment. Verify the channels FedEx uses to call customers and protect yourself from shipping frauds.”
While online scams are common these days, this particular incident is highly sensitive as the fraudsters even made the lawyer strip in front of a webcam in the pretext of a 'narcotic test'.
The woman was reportedly on calls with the fraudsters for 36 hours, who threatened her not to disclose any information about the case to others due to the involvement of influential figures.
The victim was compelled to transfer Rs 10.7 lakh to verify her past transaction. Additionally, she transferred Rs 4 lakh using her credit card, payments were made to an unknown account.
Meanwhile, after this big loss, the victim gathered the courage to disconnect the call and seek the police help, as per reports.
The police have registered this case under the Information Technology Act, extortion and cheating.
