Representative image of cybercrime.
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Bengaluru: A 70-year-old senior journalist was threatened into confining herself at her home for eight days, which she later described exclusively to DH as “digital captivity” by FedEx cyber fraudsters who claimed to be Mumbai police and CBI officers and extorted Rs 1.2 crore from her.
They threatened her saying she faced arrest as a consignment in her name carried drugs and credit cards and her two bank accounts were used in hawala transactions.
“They made me transfer money multiple times and told me I had to stay home so that they could verify whether the hawala transactions were not from my account. They told me men were watching me and I would be arrested if I stepped out. They made me stay on a WhatsApp call at regular intervals from 9 am to 2 am every day from December 15 to 23,” the victim, Kamini (name changed), told DH.
Explaining why she stayed in “digital captivity”, Kamini said, “Their impeccable English and the aural effects they created on WhatsApp calls made me believe I was indeed speaking to top police officers. The way they gave away my personal details like my Aadhaar number also made me believe them. I cowered in fear and listened to their instructions.”
According to her complaint on Dec 23, she answered a WhatsApp call on Dec 15 without noticing the number. The person on the call introduced himself as the Andheri police inspector. Kamini was alone at home as both her children had gone abroad.
“He read out my mobile and Aadhaar numbers and told me there was a parcel in my name on FedEx courier with drugs, credit cards and so on. With FedEx being a well-known service, I believed it and he said the call would be transferred to the deputy commissioner of police,” she said.
“The setup was so good that the fraudsters executed every move as if it were real and happening in front of me. While on call, I could hear the knock on the door and the official asking the ‘DCP’ if he may go in. I could hear the door opening. I heard the inspector wish the other person, “Jai Hind sir, we have the suspect on call”. Behind all this, I could hear pages turning, footsteps and people speaking,” she said.
“The DCP spoke next and said two of her bank accounts were used in the hawala racket. They claimed my Aadhaar was used in five different states for bank transactions,” she said, adding: “It particularly struck me when he said money laundering and hawala racket amounted to terrorism and that it was a non-bailable offence and I could be arrested. I froze.”
Further, the call was handed over to another person posing as a CBI officer, who claimed he has been in service for 30 years and he could make out that the Bengaluru woman was innocent by her voice. “But he asked me to prove my innocence,” she said.
The co-operation that the fake cops sought was that she had to be on call and not contact anyone.
Kamini said that as the call being was transferred from one officer to another “superior” officer, their voices also sounded to be from older persons. The scamsters allegedly threatened Kamini that if she contacted the police or anyone else, her life could be in danger.
On the eighth day, Kamini suspected she was being cheated and told them she is going to the police. “They told me ‘Hum Jamtara se hai, kuch nahi kar sakte, humare upar film banaya gaya hai (we are from Jamtara, nothing can be done, a film has been made on us’, she said.
She stepped out only once
Kamini stepped out of her house only once in those eight days, that too on instructions from the fraudsters who asked her to go to the bank to transfer a big amount to them by RTGS. The fraudsters stayed with her on call and guided her all the way from her home to the bank and back. “When I wrote Rs 48 lakh on the RTGS application, the manager asked me why I was transferring such a huge amount. In anxiety, I said it was my account and it was an emergency,” Kamini told DH.
She said: “I believe my phone was bugged. I felt I was being watched. I feared they would know if I moved. They even asked me if I spoke to someone. Though I was not talking to them all the time, every hour, I had to report to them by saying ‘I am okay’. It was terribly disturbing,” she
said.
Kuldeep Kumar R Jain, who is heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing FedEx scams and in charge of Kamini’s case, told DH that it is very unlikely that Kamini’s phone was bugged but she appeared to have become the victim of her own fear psychosis. The police have started investigating the case.