Hyderabad | A month after losing ₹2.88 crores to parcel scam, 85-yr-old gets back ₹53 lakhs

85-year-old man conned of ₹2.88 crore in FedEx fraud receives ₹53 lakh refund, more to come.

Over a month after an 85-year-old man from Habsiguda of Hyderabad was conned of his lifetime savings of over ₹2.88 crore in the infamous parcel scam or ‘FedEx fraud’, a total of ₹53 lakh was refunded to him on Wednesday (October 23, 2024) by an Axis Bank branch in Surat.

Another ₹50 lakh involved in the scam, which was put on hold in the fraudulent accounts, will be refunded to the complainant Davuluri Hanumantha Rao by a State Bank of India branch in Kerela.

On the afternoon of September 4, the man received a call from fraudsters stating that his Aadhaar card and bank accounts were used in an alleged fraud of ₹300 crores, of which ₹68 crores was his share. He was asked to transfer all his funds to ‘RBI accounts’ to verify the genuineness of the transactions and was connected to a ‘CBI officer’ by the name of Rakesh Shinde who warned him of possible arrest and jail time in the case. Soon after, a person by name Rajaram was assigned as the prosecutor for the complainant’s case, and he was assured the money would be returned after the verification procedure was completed.

The complainant began transferring his funds on September 9 and transferred ₹2.58 crores and ₹30 lakh from two different accounts on the same day before his wife became suspicious. The couple lodged a cybercrime complaint through the helpline number 1930.

During the investigation, the police officials sent notices to the bank officials and transactions worth over ₹1 crore were put on hold in multiple suspicious accounts. The complainant then filed a petition for the refund of the amount held in the fraudulent accounts, based on which orders were issued.