After FedEx Scams, Cyber Fraudsters In Hyderabad Wield New Weapon To Dupe People -India Post

Hyderabad: A 75-year-old retired central government employee from West Marredpally in Hyderabad was duped of Rs 23.26 lakh by a fraudster posing as an India Post official. This scam comes after cases of FedEx courier frauds were reported across Telangana.According to police, the fraudster claimed that a parcel the retired government employee had ordered from Mumbai to Dubai could not be delivered due to suspicious items like police uniforms, police ID cards, passports, and credit cards in it, TOI reported.An official from the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau said, "When the victim said he had no knowledge of it, the impersonator instructed him to file a complaint with the Mumbai police. The latter even connected the victim to an individual named Vishal Thakur, who posed as an official of the Mumbai police," as quoted by TOI.The official added that Thakur registered a complaint for the victim and directed him to a CID officer. The fake officer claimed that the victim's Aadhaar information was being misused for money laundering across India. He also alleged that the accused in those cases had confessed to giving the victim a 40 percent commission of the total fraud, amounting to approximately Rs 400 crore.The official added that when the victim emphasized his innocence, the scammers pressured him into paying Rs 23.26 lakh into an account for his credentials to be verified by the RBI. However, the victim became suspicious and reported the matter to the local police when the fraudsters demanded an additional Rs 5 lakh as "Supreme Court clearance fees," according to the TOI report.The TOI report mentioned that cyber sleuths have reported two or three cases of the India Post scam in Telangana so far. In 2023, as many as 89,783 cyber crime complaints were received from across Telangana. Among these, FedEx courier frauds stood out the most. In FedEx scams, people have lost anywhere between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 crore on average, a TOI report said. According to the police, at least 30 percent of all cyber crimes are courier frauds, mainly targeting retired employees and housewives.