Chennai: The Tamil Nadu police on Friday apprehended seven accused involved in a large-scale FedEx scam, where a Chennai resident was defrauded of Rs. 1.18 crore.
The accused were arrested by the sleuths of the Tamil Nadu Cyber Crime Wing. The accused posed as FedEx executives and cybercrime officers to manipulate the victim into transferring large sums of money under the guise of proving innocence in a fake criminal investigation, an official release by the Tamil Nadu police said.
On August 2 this year, the victim from here received a call from a person posing as a FedEx customer care executive. The fraudster falsely informed her that her parcel contained banned goods and transferred her call to someone posing as a cybercrime officer, who threatened her with legal consequences unless she deposited funds into various bank accounts to prove her innocence, the statement said.
Following these threats, the victim transferred Rs. 1,18,00,000/- to multiple accounts before realising she had been scammed. She lodged an online complaint with the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and subsequently filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime Wing Head Quarters here, it added.
According to the statement, an FIR was registered at Cyber Crime Wing Headquarters here under relevant sections of the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008.
"The initial investigation by the Cyber Crime Wing led to the arrest of three accused, one of the account holder named Ramesh Bhadabhai and two cyber-criminal agents Vivek Beladiya Damajbhai and Paresh Narshibhai Kalsaria. Investigation led to the arrest of Vipul Bhagubhai Kovadiya from Darang, Bhuj, Gujarat who acted as a mediator between the agents and the cybercriminals," the statement said.
It further said Vipul revealed that two more agents based in Maharashtra were involved in this case and they were the main 'Face to Face' agents in this case and that they will have the contact of the main accused in Dhaka, Bangaladesh.
"The Cyber Crime Wing used advanced investigative techniques to establish the cyber criminals in Kuruduwadi, Maharashtra and apprehended two accused Sahil and Shahrukha. Sahil had installed an OTP APK file on the account holders phone allowing fraudulent transfers. The investigation uncovered the network operated under the instructions of king pin at Dakha, Bangladesh coordinating the operations with agents like Sahil," the statement added.
Sahil Khudbuddin Attar of Solapur Maharashtra and Shahrukha Ebrahim Shaikh have been remanded and further investigation is ongoing.
