Scammers online to threaten, extort cash

Hyderabad: Niharika (name changed) and her husband got married recently and were living in a small apartment. Her husband, the sole bread earner, lost Rs 50,000, which they had been saving to start a new life, in a courier scam.

In a traumatic manner, Niharika and her husband were severely brain-washed and intimidated after the fraudster made them stay connected on a video call for nearly five hours. He further intimidated them by showing them pictures of the husband’s real Aadhaar card and PAN card.

“A month ago, my husband received a WhatsApp call. In that call, there were two people, one dressed as a police officer from the Mumbai crime branch and the other dressed as a lawyer. Initially, it was the police officer speaking. He introduced himself as the crime branch officer and told my husband that there was a courier in his name and that it contained cocaine. He was also told on the call that the person he was trying to send it to has passed away,” Niharika said.

When her husband started questioning the fraudster, he started intimidating him further, later asking the lawyer to join and explain the legal consequences of the so-called crime that he had committed.

“After continuous questioning, they finally started asking him to pay some money and settle the case against him. My husband started questioning them again and threatened to disconnect the call. But they warned that another officer who would call him subsequently wouldn’t be considerate and would make him face legal consequences.”

“I do not know whether it was a guess or not but they knew that he was planning to go to the US to explore more career options, and intimidated him on that point too. Later, he got scared and finally gave in. After getting the money transferred, they did not immediately disconnect, and asked him to stay in isolation for two days,” Niharika said.

“My husband didn’t even know what drugs and cocaine meant until this scam happened.”

An 80-year-old man, another victim, was waiting near the ACP’s office, to narrate his grievance, after he lost `20 lakh in a similar courier scam.

The ACP asked him: “Why did you fall for it when you knew you know no one in Iran, and that you do not do drugs?” “I was scared,” the man said.

His son, sitting right beside him, said, “He sometimes watches porn. Being an old man and not so tech-savvy, he got scared thinking he must have clicked on some link or thought this was a result of him browsing such websites.”

Ajay, a cybercrime constable with the Cyberabad cybercrime unit, said, “Sometimes we ask the victims why they give in to such a thing. If they haven’t done anything wrong, then why worry? But a fact worth considering is that these criminals are now threatening the victims to inculcate fear in them. A majority of the victims of this scam are software employees, who do not read or watch the news, and only want to live peacefully.”

“One of the victims even told a fraudster that he had done nothing and that he was disconnecting, but just minutes before, they showed him a parcel with his name written on it, with zero spelling errors, and the logo and everything including the slip in place,” the constable said.

According to cybercrimes ACP Chandrakant, more often than not, criminals bombard the victims with SMS, calls and threaten them from disconnecting calls, giving them no time to think. In many cases, victims have stayed on call for over 10 hours.

“Most of the victims receive Interactive Voice Response (IVR) calls. These are automated calls which don’t need a human on the other end. So a system-generated voice says that the person on the other end is being connected to the CBI. Anybody would be scared for a second, and if not scared, they would be curious to know why CBI is calling them,” another constable said.

“Many elderly people have also been receiving SMS from fraudsters claiming to be bank executives, claiming that their bank balance is extremely low and that if they don't put in more money, their account would be closed. There is nothing suspicious about this. The person deposits without realising it was a fraud,” said ACP Ravinder.

According to the ACP, most people don't check and verify with the banks before making these transactions. Even if it is too late and one has lost money, they should immediately report their grievances by dialling 1930, he said.