PANAJI: A retired high school teacher (VRS) from South Goa lost around Rs 17 lakh to a lottery scam. The victim in her 50’s had received an SMS informing that she had won 4 lakh (British pounds) in a ‘2006 lucky promo’ lottery draw.
This scam is linked to Nigerian frauds, police believe.
Cyber crime police station, Ribandar has registered an offence against unknown accused persons and the investigation is on. Lottery scam is a first such case to have been registered at the Cyber Crime police station.
Police investigation has revealed that the bank accounts in which the victim deposited money are traced to Delhi including the mobile phone numbers which were used by the scamsters to communicate with the victim. It is learnt that the mobile phone numbers used by the accused were obtained on fake documents while police are in process to verify the bank account details.
According to the police, the victim received a SMS on her mobile phone number pertaining to winning of the lottery and was asked to provide her details to claim the money.
Soon the details were sent to the email id mentioned in the SMS. She was subsequently contacted by the accused person, who under some or the other pretext asked her to deposit money in bank accounts. In order to claim the prize she was asked to deposit money towards tax, lottery fees, clearance charges and so on.
The victim, who did not suspect anything fishy continued to deposit money in different bank accounts as directed and ended up depositing a total of Rs 17 lakh. The scamsters had also asked her not to divulge to anyone the details pertaining to the lottery.
Over a period of two months, the victim ended up paying around Rs 17 lakh and subsequently realised that she has been taken for a ride. That is when a complaint was lodged with the cyber crime police station Ribandar.
NT Network Goa News
This scam is linked to Nigerian frauds, police believe.
Cyber crime police station, Ribandar has registered an offence against unknown accused persons and the investigation is on. Lottery scam is a first such case to have been registered at the Cyber Crime police station.
Police investigation has revealed that the bank accounts in which the victim deposited money are traced to Delhi including the mobile phone numbers which were used by the scamsters to communicate with the victim. It is learnt that the mobile phone numbers used by the accused were obtained on fake documents while police are in process to verify the bank account details.
According to the police, the victim received a SMS on her mobile phone number pertaining to winning of the lottery and was asked to provide her details to claim the money.
Soon the details were sent to the email id mentioned in the SMS. She was subsequently contacted by the accused person, who under some or the other pretext asked her to deposit money in bank accounts. In order to claim the prize she was asked to deposit money towards tax, lottery fees, clearance charges and so on.
The victim, who did not suspect anything fishy continued to deposit money in different bank accounts as directed and ended up depositing a total of Rs 17 lakh. The scamsters had also asked her not to divulge to anyone the details pertaining to the lottery.
Over a period of two months, the victim ended up paying around Rs 17 lakh and subsequently realised that she has been taken for a ride. That is when a complaint was lodged with the cyber crime police station Ribandar.
NT Network Goa News
No comments:
Post a Comment