New Delhi, India

A scammer impersonating as a Maharashtra narcotics division employee scammed a Delhi doctor into paying Rs 4.47 crore ($ 548K). The scamster told the 34-year-old woman that a huge amount of MDMA drug had been discovered in a FedEx delivery associated with her.

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Then members of the cyber criminal gang posed as officers from the Andheri police station, RBI officials, a DCP from Mumbai Police, customs sleuths, and Narcotics division detectives to swindle money from the victim. 

As per a TOI report, Delhi Police filed a FIR against the scammers and launched a technical investigation. 

Notably, it is being reported as Delhi's largest cyber crime, which began with a phone call to the victim. The crooks told the woman doctor that her FedEx shipment had been confiscated as it has MDMS drug. 

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The caller instructed her to submit a report with the Andheri police station, and the policemen told her to file the case online because the victim was in Delhi. She was instructed to download the Skype application. 

A woman purporting to be Inspector Patil communicated with the victim over Skype and spoke with someone else about validating her Aadhaar ID. According to report, the victim overheard a conversation in which her ID was used to create 23 bank accounts in Mumbai and was flagged for money laundering. 

Following that, she was asked to produce photographs of her bank accounts with the balances and to provide her whole financial information. On the callers' directions, the victim got caught in their web of lies and even broke her fixed deposits for verification. 

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Another police officer instructed her to fill up RTGS papers, and other authorities posing as RBI personnel, as well as the Mumbai Narcotics Division officials, joined the cyber fraud and stole Rs 4.47 crore ($548K) from the doctor. 

More than 500 apps blocked over cyber fraud, spoofing concerns

Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced last month that the Union Home Ministry had identified over 500 apps that were being used in India for spoofing and fraud.

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"The apps have been blocked on Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre's (I4C) recommendations due to security reasons and action has been taken as per law," Shah said, while reviewing the working of the cyber crime centre at NDCC Bhawan in Delhi.

The unit prepared an analytical report on the top 50 cyber attacks' modes of operation and shared data with states. This unit is also looking into the AIIMS cyber attack.

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