FedEx scam kingpin opeating from Dhaka, say Tamil Nadu police
After nabbing four from Gujarat, the police arrested two from Maharashtra who acted as agents appearing on video call
Shahrukha Ebrahim Shaikh and Sahil Khudbuddin Attar
CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Police's Cyber Crime Wing arrested two more accused from Maharashtra in connection with the cheating of a Chennai resident of Rs 1.18 crore by posing as courier firm staff and cyber crime officers, and coercing the victim into transferring the money by threatening him with a fake police investigation.
On August 2, the victim received a phone call from a person claiming to be the customer care executive of a courier firm. The person on the call informed that her parcel contained banned goods and transferred the call to another person, who claimed to be a police officer and threatened action.
Worried over police and legal trouble, the victim agreed to pay up and ended up transferring Rs 1.18 crore to multiple accounts as demanded by the scamsters. It took a while for her to realise that she was scammed, and then registered an online complaint with the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and with the Cyber Crime Wing in Chennai.
The police initially arrested Ramesh Bhadabhai, Vivek Beladiya Damajbhai, Paresh Narshibhai Kalsaria, and Vipul Bhagubhai from Gujarat, who acted as agents. Based on the information provided by Vipul, the officials learnt of the role of two more scamsters, known in their parlance as F2F (face-to-face) agents. They are the ones who appear on video calls.
After tracking the suspects, officials apprehended Sahil Khudbuddin Attar (24) and Shahrukha Ebrahim Shaikh (27) from Kuruduwadi in Maharashtra.
"The investigation uncovered the network operated under the instructions of the Kingpin in Dhaka, Bangladesh, coordinating the operations with agents like Sahil, who works as F2F agents to interact with account holders," said an official release.
Both the accused were brought to Chennai and remanded in judicial custody.
The police requested the members of the public who fall victim to such scams to dial 1930 for toll-free assistance provided by Cyber Crime Wing or register complaint at www.cybercrime.gov.in.
