Pune: A 38-year-old software engineer with a prominent infotech firm in Hinjewadi lost Rs 30 lakh to cybercrooks impersonating Mumbai cyber police officials, in a parcel fraud on Sept 9. The crooks forced the techie to avail herself of a Rs 20 lakh loan and got her to transfer the sum to their account, besides siphoning Rs 10 lakh from her bank account, police said. The techie lodged a complaint in this connection with the Hinjewadi police recently after verification of her complaint application.
An officer from the Hinjewadi police told TOI that according to the complainant, a person called her up posing as a customer care executive of a courier firm on Sept 9. The caller informed her that a parcel bearing her name, which was to be couriered to Iran, was returned after drugs and $900 were found in it, the complaint stated. "The caller also told the woman that if she did not send any parcel, she needed to avail a police clearance certificate and connected her to a person claimed to be from the Mumbai cyber cell department," the officer said.
He said the ‘officer' told the woman to download a telecommunication application and started talking with her. The ‘officer' then told her to share the bank details for the police clearance certificate. "The person told the woman that her bank accounts were being misused for money laundering and asked her to apply for a personal loan of Rs 20 lakh through internet banking," the officer said, adding that that when the woman refused to apply for the loan, the ‘officer' threatened to arrest her.
"Scared, the techie applied for the loan and then transferred it to a bank account number provided by the crook to her. The woman then sent Rs 9.98 lakh more to the crook by breaking her two fixed deposits," he said.
The investigating officer said after transferring Rs 30 lakh, the woman contacted her husband, who alerted her about the fraud. The woman then stopped responding to the crooks and approached the police. "Our investigations are on," the officer said.
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