Pune: Cybercrooks posing as customs officers duped a 33-year-old woman from BT Kawade Road of Rs17.51 lakh by threatening to take action against her friend, claiming that the latter had arrived at New Delhi airport with an actionable amount of foreign currency.
The crooks even went to the extent of imitating the complainant’s friend and convinced her to transfer the money.The victim said the fraudsters cited different reasons and made her send the amount in tranches to different bank accounts between Sept 9 and 10.
The woman filed a complaint application with the cyber police station thereafter. Following preliminary investigations, a case was registered with the Mundhwa police on Thursday.
An officer from the Mundhwa police told TOI that the complainant works with a private firm in Vimannagar. On Sept 9, she received a call from a woman, who claimed to be a customs officer at Indira Gandhi Airport in New Delhi. “The caller said the victim’s friend had arrived in New Delhi from the UK and was found carrying a huge amount of foreign currency. If he wanted to travel further, he needed to declare the currency, which was not possible with his credit card,” the officer told TOI.
The complainant was aware that her UK-based friend, a surgeon, would be coming to Delhi. “The caller handed over the cellphone to a person, who posed as the complainant’s friend and told her that he needed her help to get the Indian currency,” the officer said.
The investigating officer added that the ‘customs officer’ first told the woman to transfer money for the payment of declaration fees. “After this, she was told to transfer money for currency conversion charges. Between Sept 9 and 10, the victim collectively transferred Rs 17.51 lakh to different bank accounts,” he said.
The woman did not contact her friend directly as the ‘customs officer’ claimed his cellphone had been seized. “The caller promised her that after the currency conversion, she would get her money back within 24 hours,” the officer said.
The crook posed as the victim’s friend and replied to messages from the number of the ‘customs officer’, saying he was ‘trying to recover the money’. However, the complainant became suspicious when she did not get her money back in the stipulated time. “The woman realised that she had been duped after she directly called her friend, who was still in the UK,” the police officer said.
