Bengaluru cops nab 'FedEx scamsters'

Bengaluru: Bengaluru police have busted a gang of cyber fraudsters in connection with a brazen 'FedEx scam' whose victims included at least one senior citizen who lost lakhs of rupees from his hard-earned savings recently.

Eight people, including four each from Davangere and Bengaluru, have been arrested so far, with police suspecting that the arrested are foot soldiers of a kingpin who is still at large. 

Police claim this is the first time in Karnataka where scammers using the name of FedEx, an American multinational involved in transportation and e-commerce, to rip-off people have been arrested.

A statement from FedEx said: "FedEx does not request personal information through unsolicited phone calls, mail, or email for goods being shipped or held, unless requested or initiated by customers. If any individual receives any suspicious phone calls or messages, they are advised not to provide their personal information. Instead, they should immediately contact the local law enforcement authorities within the vicinity or report to the cybercrime department of the government of India."

The arrests were made by the Bengaluru North CEN police in connection with a case registered in their jurisdiction. 

The modus operandi

The scam was driven by impersonation and a concocted story.

Here's how it worked: scamsters would contact their potential victim, impersonating either FedEx or a customs official, claiming they have a parcel in his/her name.

Next, they would inform the victim that the parcel has drugs in it and talk them into transferring money to avoid getting their account frozen. On receiving the money from the freaked-out victims, the scamsters would go incommunicado.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) C K Baba said fear and the sense of emergency involved pushed people into parting with their hard-earned money.  

“When they claim that there is a parcel in their name and that drugs were found inside it, people tend to fear," Baba said. "If this story doesn’t sell with the potential victim, fraudsters would claim there are bank accounts in their name and that money laundering businesses are carried out through them."

Further, Baba said, they would "warn the victims that all their bank accounts would be frozen, which creates a sense of  emergency and leaves no room for any thought”. 

Hard to track

Police said scamsters used Skype or WhatsApp calls, which are almost impossible to trace.

These scamsters are concentrated in different states and, in many cases, different countries, police said, adding the whole scam happens through a mule network. In FedEx cases, transactions are carried out in cryptocurrency, they added.

Victims narrate their ordeal

In two separate cases, reported on November 9 and 10, two elderly persons from Bengaluru lost a combined sum of Rs 1.61 crore. The scamsters used the same trick in both the cases.

The scamsters called the potential victims, claiming they were from FedEx company, and said a parcel in the victim's name was waiting to be sent to Thailand. But they pointed out that it was an illegal one and it contained drugs among other things. 

When the victims fell for the trap, they were connected to a few more people (in one case through WhatsApp and another through a Skype call) who impersonated the Mumbai Police.

The fake police concocted a story stating multiple bank accounts had been created in their name and money laundering was carried out through those accounts. They asked for bank statements and money, convincing them that it would be refunded later once the investigations are over.  

One of the victims who spoke to DH said that it was their life savings which they planned to use for their son’s education. 

A well-placed police source told DH that the eight arrested were involved in one of these cases.