Con artists steal Rs 4.5 crore from Delhi woman, pose as RBI and police officials

New Delhi: A woman was allegedly cheated out of Rs 4.5 crores in the capital city by con artists working via the web. The Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi police registered a case against cybercrime.

The victim's name is Dr Poonam Rajput and the accused was contacted via Skype calls. They posed as police officials from Mumbai's Andheri Police Station, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials, customs officials, Narcotics officials, and a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) rank official.

A case has been registered under sections 420, 468, 471, 389, 170, and 120 B Indian Penal Code. "Delhi Police is yet to trace the Skype Calls and unearth those behind the nexus."

She said someone contacted her and said that her parcel had been seized from FedEx where 140 gms of MDMA. Her passport, banking document, and shoes were also in the parcel booked on April 21 from Mumbai to Taiwan. The first call from the criminals came on May 5. They made her believe that she has to break her fixed deposits for seizure and verification. They claimed 23 accounts were opened using the same KYC. They said her KYC was compromised and some of those accounts are involved in money laundering.

"The crooks said to the victim that the amount had to be transferred to RBI for verification as it was suspected as proceeds of crimes and after the verification, the amount would be sent back to the victim," said the police. Letters from RBI and Mumbai Police on official letterheads were also sent to her.