Cyber Fraud Alert: A marketing professional from Chennai reported on Tuesday that she received a similar scam call, stating her Aadhaar number was used to ship drugs to Thailand, following the deception of two residents of Gurugram out of around ₹ 2 crore by cybercriminals.
Lavanya Mohan’s Encounter with Scam Customer Care
Lavanya Mohan wrote about her conversation with a man posing as a FedEx customer care representative and claimed that her ID was being used to transfer drugs overseas in a series of posts on X.
“Two weeks ago, there was news of one man from Gurgaon losing 56 Lakhs to a scammer and another, 1.3 Crores. I got the same call today. A customer care exec from FedEx will call you and say that your Aadhar card is being misused to send packages with drugs to Thailand,” she wrote.
Scammer Presents Phony Employee ID and FIR Number
The caller also gave her a phoney employee ID, a FIR number, and fake shipment details to make it seem like a real concern. After that, the caller promised to put her in touch with a customs officer to resolve the problem. “Ma’am, if you don’t go ahead with the complaint, your Aadhar will continue to be misused so let me connect you right away with the cyber crime branch” Threatening consequences + urgency = scam,” she wrote.
According to Mohan, the caller also forewarned her about “rising scams” and promised to assist her immediately by calling the police. “Whats worrying is the level of details he had to provide me. The modus operandi is they connect you to the police who then claim that your ID is linked to the underworld. People are losing their hard-earned money and they can’t be blamed because these scams are growing more sophisticated,” she said.
Lavanya Mohan Advises Vigilance Against Scam Threats
Mohan cautioned against falling for such “sophisticated” threats, stating that it was quite unusual that a delivery service would get in touch with you regarding such a severe matter. She also added that the police would probably come to your home to notify you if your ID was being misused.
“Anyway, I told the scammer I’d wait for the police to contact me and cut the call,” she said. Similar cyberscams that impersonate real people by using extremely precise information have been reported nationwide a lot in the last few months.
Gurugram Resident Targeted
Similar calls were made to Debraj Mitra, a Gurugram resident, in February, advising him that a package containing credit cards, passports, drugs, and laptops connected to the “Mumbai underworld” had been shipped from Taiwan to Mumbai using his Aadhaar data.
He received calls on Skype from people claiming to be representatives of the Mumbai Crime Branch, demanding that he move all of his money into a bank account for “monitoring”. Mitra sent a total of ₹ 56,70,000 to the bank account held by the scammers before realising he was being duped.
How to Stay Safe From Cyber Crime
To stop potential attacks on older software, turn on automatic upgrades. For your most sensitive files, such tax returns or financial records, encrypt them. You should also regularly backup all of your vital data and store it somewhere else. They are not in the Wi-Fi (wireless) settings.