[G-BoleroBoy]

Read the news yesterday that this is now busted with multiple arrests by Bangalore police

https://www.deccanherald.com/india/k...-fraud-2793704

https://indianexpress.com/article/ci...olice-9103215/

Looks like a major scam..

[sajands]

5 minutes back, my wife got such a call.

Same drill, from FedEx your package is with Bangalore police, you need to come on video call and validate asap.. blah...blah... My wife said I am with FedEx head office, which FedEx location and depot is this, what's your employee number and reporting manager. I will connect with the regional head and check on this.

Immediately call gets disconnected

[JediKnight]

Got "FedEx" scam call just now. Cannot believe these guys are still active, considering that this scam is now well known, and out in the open. Be careful.

[NomadSK]

I wish he had just read this thread, would have saved him from all the miseries.

Link

[crn12]

I got a call yday from an automated system or an IVR mentioning about some parcel and to hit 1 or 2 to get transfrd to an agent, I did that and the call went to an executive, I spoke to him he sounded quite professional.

He told me that may be the call was a tech issue if i have no courier being sent abroad, he sounded genuine and in fact told me to ignore such calls . It sounded strange to me..I just kept quiet and let it be..

I started thinking and reflected on me reading about such scams on the web, it gave me clarity that, may be the guy who picks the call acts genuine in the beginning and then i may get one more call from an IVR or a person and then i again get trnsfrd to somebody, so i thought let me give it an hour and see.

Exactly as i had thought, I got a call from an agent claiming to be from FEDEX, she was very polite and asked me a few questions (In my head thought it's a clear scam..)..I got transferred and then i thought let me not take this any further and disconnected the call and blocked the numbers.

[Sheel]

Got a call today morning at 8:40, I was still gathering myself up, so could not understand, first it was an automated voice, I pressed the button to connect and it was a person telling me that I have some stuff from China which is held at customs.

The dude had my details, but could not even pronounce things correctly plus I am importing nothing, no car parts (had to convince my wife more than the other person, call was on speaker), so ultimately told him please try else where.

[kookaburra]

Originally Posted by 115

Just read the article and wanted to post this here.
In this case the person transferred 95L to the fraudsters account by himself!!

I am totally shocked and surprised by the manner in which they are able to convince people to do such things.

I always fail to understand....
1. How come they don't encounter any checks/hurdles from the bank while they transfer huge amounts
2. Usually most banks won't allow you to transfer more than 50k in first 24 hours. Why is this not implied in the scammer's case, is really troubling
3. Why do the victims never ONCE mention this to their family/friends before they hit the fund transfers?
4. While my credit card company blocked my card even for smaller payments to vegetable vendors, why no such thing happens in the case of huge amounts described above? (I even faced blocking of my netbanking, for a large amount transfer made between my OWN accounts under the same netbanking)

I mean, how come the SCAM FUND TRANSFER happen without any issue? Or do the victims hide this part?

[vijaykr]

I don't think you can bypass the new beneficiary transfer limits in the banks. What is likely not getting highlighted in these newspaper reports is that there is probably a day or two between the initial call and the actual transfer of these large sums. I'm sure the scammers keep the victims hooked with continued calls/msgs, but you do bring up a good point in why these people never think to confide in spouse, parents or close friends. 24 hours is a long time to keep this kind of secret to yourself. That duration should also give some pause to rethink the transfer especially for IT folks who go thru umpteen trainings on this very topic of phishing etc.

Or maybe I'm missing something elementary here in terms of the bank transfer window/limits.

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Got a call today morning at 8:40, I was still gathering myself up, so could not understand, first it was an automated voice, I pressed the button to connect and it was a person telling me that I have some stuff from China which is held at customs.

The dude had my details, but could not even pronounce things correctly plus I am importing nothing, no car parts (had to convince my wife more than the other person, call was on speaker), so ultimately told him please try else where.

I got the exact same call!! The Automated voice call asked me to press 9.

Warning to all!

In the past 10 days, I have received calls from individuals claiming to represent FedEx, Delhi Customs, and Mumbai Customs, asking for personal information and details.

These calls typically commence with a threat, and upon encountering resistance, the callers promptly terminate the conversation.

[ajmat]

I've been getting these calls nearly twice a day.

Please report these calls over here, at least the TRAI can block/flag the numbers

https://sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc/

[arin_12]

List of the fraud calls that I have got in last 3 months.

• Your parcel is having unauthorized items and its stuck with custom
• FIR against you in cyber security cell due to social vulgar content
• Your mobile no will be blocked in 2 hrs as KYC not done
• Insurance policy is getting expired

Thank fully I escaped all of them.

[PreludeSH]

Got calls from Delhi Customs twice, just now and yesterday. I talked in English and they transferred to someone who knows English.

He asked my full name and I said Albert Pinto. Then he again asked full name and said Albert Badass Pinto. He then said there is a parcel and I said you can keep it and how he could not know my name if its addressed to me. He cut the call

Tried using the above link to report. Not sure I want to give all the details they asked.

[mail2sekh]

Many in our circles have been regularly getting this incoming automated voice call asking to press 9. The usual customs / taiwan / fedex parcel nonsense - it has almost become a joke. We have even recorded the calls and played along for a while. But the scammers have also graduated to professional levels, templatizing and automating their methods - relentlessly pursuing and are betting on probability now.

The unfortunate reality is many are still falling victim to this despite all the awareness.
To answer somebody's question on how it is practically possible to transfer such large amounts of money online - it usually happens over several days. The victims are in trauma mostly owing to the threats to themselves/family/exposure etc.

Karnataka seems to be the worst hit:
https://www.deccanherald.com/india/k...frauds-2959672

This is another recent incident:

https://www.deccanherald.com/india/k...2-lakh-2958958

[.sushilkumar]

Seems like there is no let down in FedEx calls. Knowing fully what the fella is upto, I kept him engaged for 15-20 min before telling them that i am from cyber cell and was tracking their phone. Just named Shimoga, KA for heck of it based on true caller reporting and guy just dropped off saying sorry.

Hoping I saved some body by keeping that fella engaged for 15 min.

[drive2eternity]

Today afternoon I got a random call, it started with an IVR stating this call is from Department of Telecom, all my phone numbers are being blocked in next 2 hours. If I need to know more, press 9.

Just by listening to the IVR, I was aware this is the Fedex fraud but for the fun of it, I pressed 9.
Now a guy picks up the call and this is how the conversation goes:

Nice Guy: Your phone number is 9xxxxxxxxx, correct?
Me: Yes you have called me on it, I am not surprised you know it.

Nice Guy: Do you also know this number 86xxxxxxx?
Me: No I dont recall this number.

Nice Guy: Please confirm your full name for verification.
Me: You have called me, you must know my full name.

Nice Guy starts getting annoyed

Nice Guy: But I need your name for verification purpose.
Me: Ok you tell me the name you have on record and I will verify if its me or not.

Nice Guy: Your name is 'employer name' first name last name'.

It is clear these guys have picked up phone numbers and names from True Caller because I am sure colleagues would have saved my number with suffix or prefix with organization name for easier recall. Something like Infosys Sukesh Yadav.

Me: Yes my name is 'employer name'. The remainder is my surname.

Its a pity the guy didn't pick up my joke here, I genuinely thought it was funny having the name of my very famous organization as my first name.

Nice Guy: A courier has been caught by Mumbai customs, which used the phone number 86xxxxxxx which they tracked to your name. It was sent from Taiwan and has many drugs. Hence they have sent request to Department of Telecom to block the number 86xxxxxxx.
Me: Go ahead and block it.

Nice Guy starts to threaten.

Nice Guy: We have blocked it. We will also block all the other numbers.
Me: Thank you for blocking it.

Nice Guy: You are not understanding, in 2 hours, your 9xxxxxxxx number will be blocked.
Me: But why, the customs team caught the 86xxxxxxxx number right?

Nice Guy: All numbers in your name will be blocked.
Me: I am thanking you for blocking 86xxxxxxxx, and you are blocking my functional number. Why officer?

Nice Guy: You are not serious, if you dont want me to help, you can cut the call.
Me: Ok.

And I cut the call. Reported the number as spam and blocked it. Refreshing 5 minutes on a Friday - loved it. Thanks Nice Guy for making me smile.