In what may be a first, the city police have registered a FIR in a case where a woman recognised a courier scam in the nick of time and did not fall prey to it.
A 27-year-old private firm employee escaped narrowly as a conman, posing as an official from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), tried to access her bank account. But he failed as she disconnected the call suspecting something was fishy.
Hyma Francis, a resident of KHB Colony, approached the police and got an FIR registered against the accused recently.
According to the complaint, a person called her to say that two phone numbers linked to her Aadhaar number were involved in illegal activities, and these SIM cards would be deactivated within two hours. The accused claimed that the Colaba Police, Mumbai, were probing the matter.
The accused also said that using these numbers and her bank account, a person, identified as Naresh Goel, was involved in money laundering activities and that she was one of the suspects.
The accused even called Ms. Francis on Skype to show a warrant purportedly issued by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) and signed by one Niraj Kumar, Assistant Director, ED, authorising officials to make a digital arrest.
The accused asked her to cooperate with the investigation and Ms. Francis shared her IDs and bank account details for verification, following which the accused demanded that she transfer the savings of two bank accounts to another account online.
Suspecting something fishy, Ms. Francis disconnected the call and narrated the ordeal to her family. Based on their advice, she went to Koramangala police and filed a complaint along with the details of the incident.
Initially, the police received her complaint and assured of looking into the matter since she did not lose any money. However, Ms. Francis was adamant to get an FIR registered to ensure her personal details are not misused.
