Cybercrime wing warns public about new courier scam

Chennai: The cybercrime wing of state police has issued an advisory warning residents about a new scam involving fraudsters posing as courier agents to hijack bank accounts and social media profiles.

Officials say fraudsters contact victims pretending to confirm or reschedule parcel deliveries, then trick them into dialling a USSD code sent via SMS—typically starting with 21 followed by the scammer’s number. Dialling the code silently activates call forwarding, diverting bank OTPs, verification calls, and app authentications straight to the scammer. They then execute unauthorized transactions or account takeovers without the victim’s knowledge.