Fake customs official, ‘UK’ friend dupe professor of Rs 90,000

Fraudsters at Mumbai airport have a new trick up their sleeve — they are extorting money from passengers by posing as customs officers.

In a recent instance on August 24, a UK businessman named David Carrick Lewis was intercepted at Mumbai airport by a woman posing as customs official who claimed he had violated customs rules and therefore, needed to deposit Rs 90,000 in her personal bank account to keep legal hassles at bay. Soon after, the UK citizen called his Indian friend, one Rajasthan-based Professor Indu Bala Saksena, who deposited Rs 90,000 in the woman’s account.

With no official complaint having been lodged, customs officials believe that Professor Saksena is most likely to be the victim of this fraud. Reason being they have found similar cases where individuals, who were not necessarily foreigners, befriended Indians on social media sites and called them saying they had been asked by customs to deposit money in certain bank accounts. They further said that the professor thinks that her UK citizen friend was cheated, but it is likely that her friend was not a UK citizen and she is the one who got cheated.

A wary customs department has issued an advisory asking people not to deposit any money in any private account.

Professor Saksena, told The Asian Age over phone that she had received a call on her mobile where the woman introduced herself as Sunita, a superintendent from Mumbai airport customs. “Sunita told me that Mr Lewis had violated a few customs duty rules and needed to pay Rs 90,000 as penalty. However, as he wasn’t carrying that much money, she asked me to deposit it in her personal YES Bank account. And I deposited the money ” she said.

To make things worse, Professor Saksena on Monday afternoon again received a call from Sunita who informed her that Mr Lewis had been found guilty by the Anti-Terror Squad of Mumbai police and needed to pay a fine of Rs 2 lakh. As Mr Lewis did not have money, Sunita asked her to pay on his behalf.

When contacted, Pradanyasheel Jumle, deputy commissioner, air intelligence unit, Mumbai airport, said, “We don’t have any Sunita in our department and the mobile number you (The Asian Age) gave us, through which calls were made to Professor Saksena, belongs to no customs official. Also, on August 24, no UK national was detained by us. Secondly, customs never asks anyone to deposit money in a bank account.” Despite several attempts, this correspondent was unable to get in touch with either Sunita or Mr Lewis.

In an earlier instance, in February, Delhi resident Anjana Chopda, too, received a similar phone call from someone claiming to be from Mumbai customs. Recalling the turn of events, Ms Chopda told this newspaper that in November 2015, she had received a Facebook request from a British national and eventually started talking to him after exchanging numbers.