Hyderabad| Was threatened of 7-year jail term, forced to break my FDs: FedEx scam victim narrates ordeal

Hyderabad: Reveendra Kothalanka, a top techie working in a leading company, had never thought in his wildest dreams that he would face such a situation in his life.

A mysterious phone call changed his life and robbed him of his hard-earned Rs 10 lakh. Before he could realize that the callers were cyber gangsters, he was bombarded with threats. From accusing him of financial fraud to threatening jail terms, he was pulverized to the hilt.

Filled with fear, he gave up. In this process, he lost Rs 10 lakh. Based on his complaint, Gachibowli police have filed a case under 204,318(4),335,336(3),338,340(2) BNS, 6-C ITA-2000-2008. Here is his story in his own words.

Excerpts:

First-Hand account

I received a call from +91 9247828374 to my Aadhaar linked mobile number +91 7995032254 at 3:12 PM on Sep 21, 2024, indicating that the parcel Docket no. 278042616715 that I booked through FedEx from Mumbai to Iran on the address of Mohammed Syed is being returned and lying with the customs department. The caller introduced himself as Raghul Diwan from the FedEx verification department with Employee ID FDX710462.

He asked me if there was any parcel in my name. I denied. Then he said that there was a parcel at Mumbai customs that contained some illegal goods. These include 5 kg of clothes, 21 strips of LSD, 3 Iranian Passports, and 1 HP laptop.

The parcel was dated Sep 15, 2024, with timestamp 03:42 PM. He said the parcel was mapped with my Aadhar ID. I informed them that the parcel was not mine. I told them that I was not residing in Hyderabad. He said someone is illegally using my Aadhar ID and to avoid legal issues, both FedEx and myself need a Police Clearance Certificate (PCC). He said if I could keep the call on hold for 2 minutes, he could register an online complaint, and I agreed.

He shared the complaint number asNCB/MH/0852/0924 and said that he is connecting the call to the Mumbai Cyber Crime Division so that I can provide all the details. He forwarded the call to someone, and a female responded that she was from the Cyber Crime Division, Mumbai Police. She said that I needed to send a message to the Mumbai police Telegram handle which is safe to communicate and someone from their investigation department would connect through a video call on Telegram. She said the investigation officer would give the PCC if I cooperated with their investigation. The Telegram handle name is mumbai_police_2236. I sent messages to the handle introducing myself and informed them that I wanted to register an online cyber complaint.

I received the Mumbai police department address and immediately some guy joined the call on the Telegram handle. He identified himself as a police investigation officer from the Mumbai Cyber Crime Division. He sent me a page with the Terms and Conditions of online complaints. He asked me for a photo of my Aadhar card, personal email ID, and FedEx email ID. I shared those details with him. He then called the control room and asked them to verify my Aadhar details. The other person from the control room sought my details i.e. name, DOB, etc. He then told me that my ID was linked to an international money laundering case and scared me that it would cause a problem. He told me that there are many bank accounts (a joint account with Mohammad Islam Malik) in my name linked to my Aadhar ID in different states of India.

He has been charged in a money laundering case and is operating all those bank accounts in your Aadhar ID. He sent me 2 photos of a criminal and asked me if I knew him because I was an alleged suspect. He told me that they needed to verify all the transactions in my bank accounts. He said he needed to check any illegal transactions or if I received any money from this person. I said that I didn’t know and there was nothing illegal that I’d done. He asked for my bank account details and how many accounts I have linked to my Aadhar. He then sent 2 documents and also 2 debit cards backside pictures. One is Investigation and Verification PMLA 2002 and the second is titled NCRB-INDIA Confidentiality Agreement of PLMA ACT-2002. He said if I questioned or didn’t obey their orders, I would be immediately taken into custody. He told me that he would connect me to his superior officer to verify my financial details.

He went to his superior officer’s room. He told me that they would verify my bank account for suspicious transactions otherwise he’d freeze all my bank accounts. He gave details of the ongoing investigation in the case of Mohammad Islam Malik. He said it is a serious crime and can attract a 7-year jail term. He intimidated and threatened me with dire consequences if I did not cooperate with them. He asked me how many bank accounts do I have. I shared the details about ICICI Bank and Punjab National Bank accounts. He said all the banking transactions should be done using the ICICI iMobile app as they suspect that my ICICI account might have been hacked and it is easy to find the culprits if transactions are done using IMPS funds transfer.

He asked me to add some accounts to transfer that amount which will be refunded in 30 minutes. He told me that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is very serious about these transactions. He asked me that I should not hide even 5 paisa in any of my accounts. And if there is a mismatch with the RBI investigation, I will be immediately taken into custody. They forced me to break my fixed deposits immediately and any instant loan should be availed immediately as the instant loan amount can be misused by the hackers and RBI wants to strictly keep my account free without any amount till the investigation is completed. Once RBI confirms that all the amounts sent to those accounts are legal, then they will transfer that amount back within 15 minutes and Mumbai police will provide the Police Clearance Certificate. My Punjab National Bank fixed deposit was opened long back by my mother for which we need to visit the bank and break the FD.

As this incident happened in the late evening of Saturday, he asked me to go to the PNB on Monday morning and break the FD giving personal emergency reasons without revealing any details to the manager as the bank employees can be fraud.

Before Monday, he asked me to drop a message to their Telegram handle at 8 AM and 8 PM confirming that no suspicious calls/messages had been received.