An increasing number of Kolkatans are getting calls and being told that a consignment of illegal articles has been booked in their names and they should immediately leave home to face interrogation by cops from another state through a video call at a hotel, police sources said.
A resident of Chetla panicked after getting such a call on Saturday and hurriedly left his office in central Kolkata to face a “police interrogation” through Skype.
The man was allowed to face questioning from his house after he told the caller that he could not check into a hotel for a prolonged period as his elderly parents were waiting for him at home.
The “interrogation” continued for more than five hours but luckily a friend saved him from being duped. “I told him that the ‘interrogator’ might be a fraudster, prompting him to disconnect the call before he could be forced to transfer money,” said the friend.
All this while, he was asked not to answer or make calls or even talk to anyone from the family, a source close to the family said.
The police said that earlier they were getting complaints of people being duped by callers who were pretending to be representatives of courier companies and convincing the victims to talk to persons who they claimed were cops. The fake cops would then try to extort money from the victims.
“But now a new modus operandi has come to light. Fraudsters are convincing people to leave home or office and check into a hotel, where they will face interrogation by ‘cops’ through a video call. The fraudsters are telling the victims that they should not make or answer calls or talk to anyone till the ‘interrogation’ is over,” said an officer in the cybercrime police station at Lalbazar.
Police sources said the fraudsters were citing the PAN and Aadhaar card numbers of their targets to convince them that a consignment had indeed been booked in their names.
“An increasing number of people are falling into the trap, convinced that their identity documents have been used to book a consignment of illegal materials” a senior officer said.
“Once a person starts believing that there is a consignment containing smuggled goods or drugs in his name, he would go to any extent to save himself from police action and the social stigma resulting from it. The person becomes vulnerable at this stage and is easily duped.” On Friday, the Chetla resident followed the fraudsters’ instructions after being told that a consignment of illegal materials had been booked in his name.
For five-and-a-half hours, he remained hooked on Skype, the source in the family said.
The man could be saved before he transferred any money as a friend, worried that he was not answering his calls for several hours, sent him a WhatsApp message.
“I asked him in the message where he was. He said he was being questioned by the police. I alerted him that this could be a fraud. After that he disconnected the call and reported the whole matter to the police. Luckily, there was no financial loss,” said the friend.
The Telegraph reported on Saturday that a Ballygunge resident had received a similar call and left home to check into a hotel on Sarat Bose Road.
He was rescued by the police after his wife reported a missing complaint and his location was tracked through his mobile phone.