Summary of this article
78-year-old man in Bengaluru's JP Nagar exposed COD scam.
Unrequested delivery contained a Korean face mask addressed to his daughter.
Complaints reveal the scam targets unsuspecting victims nationwide.
A senior citizen (78) in Bengaluru's JP Nagar has reported a Cash on Delivery (COD) scam to the police and sought an investigation into the matter. The incident happened on October 11, 2025. The elderly man received a parcel from a well-known courier company at his address. The package, in the name of his daughter, contained a 90-gram Korean peel-off face mask priced at Rs 699. However, when he checked with his daughter, she confirmed that she had not ordered any such item. This made the elderly suspect a wrong delivery. He later visited the courier company's branch office, located in Puttenahalli, Bengaluru, and found out that the parcel had been sent by a firm based in Delhi.
The man wasn't satisfied with just this information. As he wanted to know the reason for sending the unrequested package on COD condition, he searched online about the company and such package deliveries. The online searches confirmed his fear of suspicious fraud, reported The Hindu. The man found several complaints from other victims across the country, who had fallen prey to the same COD delivery scam.
This alerted him more, and he reported the matter to the police, who registered a case on October 26, 2025. The charges were filed for cheating and impersonation under the Information Technology Act and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Reportedly, the representative of the Delhi company has been summoned, and an investigation is underway.
Police sources, per the report, indicate that the Delhi company might have obtained people's personal data and addresses from social media platforms to send unsolicited parcels. The objective of such COD parcels is to coerce recipients to pay for a product not ordered by them, which, in most cases, is not useful. One officer said that in such incidents, many people refuse to accept the parcel they have not ordered, but some people pay the amount, just out of curiosity. This is how the modus operandi works.
As it involved only a small amount, most victims do not bother filing complaints, and therefore, such scams go unchecked.
However, this raises the question about online safety and the need for digital security, particularly for vulnerable people, including senior citizens. Although COD scams do not involve a significant financial loss, they show the growing cyber and delivery-based fraud.
In this digital era, it is crucial for everyone to stay vigilant and report any such fraud, if witnessed, without delay to the cybercrime cell at 1930 or to the police.
