PUNE: The Airport police are investigating a 28-year-old IT professional‘s complaint that some unidentified callers, posing as courier firm representatives and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officials, duped her of Rs13.94 lakh in a drug parcel fraud between Nov 30 last year and April this year.
“The victim, a resident of Lohegaon, told us that the caller posing as ‘NCB officer’ forced her to disrobe on a video call for a ‘physical verification‘ after claiming that they suspected her of ‘money laundering and terror links’,” inspector (Crime) Sarjerao Kumbhar of the Airport police said on Monday.
A case of cheating and use of force with intent to disrobe a woman under IPC and the IT Act was registered.
Kumbhar said, “She said a man, who claimed to represent a global courier firm, called and informed her that NCB officials had intercepted a Taiwan-bound parcel with her name as sender. He told her that the parcel contained drugs, passports and other incriminating material. The man then told her that he was connecting the call with an NCB officer for an inquiry.”
On the pretext of recording her statement, they got her on a video call where the caller collected her bank details and asked her to transfer money for ‘verification of her bank transactions’. They also forced her to disrobe on video call ‘to check moles and birth marks’, she told the police.
The IT professional realised she was cheated after the callers refused to refund money and stopped communicating with her, the officer said.
The victim had initially filed a complaint application with the Pune police’s cybercrime unit soon after the incident. After verification, an FIR was registered on Sunday. “We will send emails to the banks, cellphone companies and video call app for details of the financial transactions and communication. We will investigate the matter further based on the details received,” Kumbhar said.
“The victim, a resident of Lohegaon, told us that the caller posing as ‘NCB officer’ forced her to disrobe on a video call for a ‘physical verification‘ after claiming that they suspected her of ‘money laundering and terror links’,” inspector (Crime) Sarjerao Kumbhar of the Airport police said on Monday.
A case of cheating and use of force with intent to disrobe a woman under IPC and the IT Act was registered.
Kumbhar said, “She said a man, who claimed to represent a global courier firm, called and informed her that NCB officials had intercepted a Taiwan-bound parcel with her name as sender. He told her that the parcel contained drugs, passports and other incriminating material. The man then told her that he was connecting the call with an NCB officer for an inquiry.”
On the pretext of recording her statement, they got her on a video call where the caller collected her bank details and asked her to transfer money for ‘verification of her bank transactions’. They also forced her to disrobe on video call ‘to check moles and birth marks’, she told the police.
The IT professional realised she was cheated after the callers refused to refund money and stopped communicating with her, the officer said.
The victim had initially filed a complaint application with the Pune police’s cybercrime unit soon after the incident. After verification, an FIR was registered on Sunday. “We will send emails to the banks, cellphone companies and video call app for details of the financial transactions and communication. We will investigate the matter further based on the details received,” Kumbhar said.