76-year-old SoBo man loses

Mumbai: A 76-year-old retired south Mumbai resident lost ₹1.80 crore to a synchronised cyber fraud, involving a fake Customs department official, courier executive and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officer.
According to central cyber police officials, the incident occurred on March 19, when the man received a phone call from a fraud posing as an executive of a courier company. The executive said that a parcel sent by the man to an address in Myanmar was confiscated by the Customs officials and they found 150 grams of MDMA drugs along with 4 kg of clothes, one laptop, 20 fake passports.
“The victim, who was shocked, denied sending any such parcel to Myanmar,” said an official. “The executive then said that the man’s Aadhar card was used to send the courier and that he could get into trouble with the law enforcement. The victim was then told that he should pay a lump sum amount to avoid getting an FIR registered against him,” added the officer.
The man, who retired in 2019, resisted paying money and said he should reach out to the police. The fraud then advised him to file a police complaint in Lucknow as the parcel was sent from the city and said he knows a police officer who can help him. The fraud connected the victim to another fraud who pretended to be from Alambagh police station in Lucknow.
“The fake officer introduced himself as Dinesh Kumar. After listening to the victim, he said it was a case of cyber fraud and then connected him to a cyber police,” said an officer.
After hearing the man out, the fake cyber police official further transferred the call to a fake CBI officer called Anil Yadav. Yadav asked the victim to connect with him on Telegram (a messaging app).
“The victim then downloaded the app and sent him a message there. Yadav added him to a group and asked him to send his personal details such as identification and bank statements etc.,” said an officer. Yadav threatened the man that he would book him in a drugs case which could go on for years and that the man would lose his social standing, money and rot in prison. “After scaring the man, Yadav offered a solution showing him sympathy for being a senior citizen,” said an officer. Yadav asked the man to share the details of his fixed deposits.
After reviewing the documents, he suggested the man should withdraw money and send it to Yadav. “Frightened that he might get caught in a drugs case, the man liquidated his funds and transferred ₹1.80 crore through RTGS between March 21 to April 22, 2024, into Yadav’s bank account,” said the officer.
“After the money was transferred, the Telegram group was deleted and the man realised he was duped by frauds. He went to the central cyber police officers and an FIR was registered against unknown persons on Saturday under several sections of the IPC and IT act.