Bengaluru IT firm CEO loses Rs 2.3 crore in fake Fedex courier scam: report

Between February 7-14, the Bengaluru CEO sent Rs 30 lakh, Rs 20 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30 lakh, Rs 30 lakh, Rs 50 lakh, and Rs 5 lakh to eight accounts. (Representational Image).

A Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of an IT firm in Bengaluru lost Rs 2.3 crore to scammers posing as staff working for Fedex and police officials, a Times of India report said.

The 66-year-old CEO, a resident of CV Raman Nagar area of the city, got a call from an unknown number on February 6 who claimed to an executive working for "FedEx" courier in Mumbai.

The scammer repeated the CEO's name, mobile number and Aadhar number and claimed that there was a parcel in his name containing 150gm MDMA, 4 passports and 4kg clothes which was being sent illegally to Shanghai.

The CEO was then informed that a case had filed against his name at a local police station in Mumbai and he would be transferring the call to one of the police officials.

The police official identified himself as Balaji Singh and asked the CEO to come to Mumbai immediately or face arrest. The scammer asked the CEO to download Skype and called him. In the video, he saw a few men seated, dressed in uniform which forced him to believe that he was speaking to genuine police officials.

Even as the CEO tried to explain that he had no role to play in drug peddling, the scammers told him there was a bank account created using his Aadhar details and there was money laundering taking place from that account.

The scammers told him that to keep the conversation confidential and informed that "sleeper cells" were being deployed to track his movements. Later, they behaved as if they were trying to help him get out of trouble and asked him to transfer all the money from his account to the Reserve Bank of India.

Between February 7-14, the CEO sent Rs 30 lakh, Rs 20 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30 lakh, Rs 30 lakh, Rs 50 lakh, and Rs 5 lakh to eight accounts. After the CEO had transferred a total of Rs 2.3 crore, the Skype calls stopped and he realised he had been scammed and filed a police complaint on February 16.