Woman loses Rs 1.37L in online lottery fraud

A telecaller of an Andheribased insurance company was duped of Rs 1.37 lakh by fraudsters. The victim Chetna Mayin, was told that she had won a lottery of Rs 25 lakh but had to first pay charges like income tax, late fee to claim her prize. The Andheri Police have booked the unidentified accused and booked him under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Information Technology (IT) Act.

Mayin, a resident of Koldongri in Andheri (E), who works with a reputed life insurance company, received a call from a man named Rana Pratap Singh. Singh claimed that he works as a manager in a nationalised bank. He also informed Mayin that she has won a lottery of Rs 25 lakh. Mayin was elated with her lucky win. Singh connected with Mayin via a video call. He also told her that his senior boss Rakesh Kumar was on the call as well. Kumar too told Mayin that she had won the lottery on www.kbclottery.ga.

The duo (Singh and Kumar) shared a video of how other winners had claimed their prize money by paying certain charges. They also showed her two cheques drawn in her name and asked her to pay Rs 11,000 for each cheque, followed by Rs 50,000 as income tax charges. The accused duo asked Mayin to pay a late charge fee of Rs 20,000 and account conversion charges of Rs 98,000 in a series of transactions.

In a bid to claim her prize money of Rs 25 lakh, Mayin paid Rs 1.37 lakh. Singh and Kumar kept demanding for more money, which raised an alarm. She stopped making the payments. She made a few enquiries and realised that the duo were conmen. She lodged a complaint at Andheri Police station.

An officer said that these fraudsters have now changed their medium of calling to WhatsApp, It enables them to dupe the victims without being recorded or having any proof of their conversation. “One should be cautious. Nobody will give such huge amounts for free. These are just baits to dupe victims," the officer added.

Based on Mayin's complaint letter, the Andheri Police registered a case of cheating against the unidentified accused and booked them under relevant sections of the IPC and IT Act. While police have contacted the bank for a detailed statement, they have also sought the Call Data Records (CDR) of the accused, to ascertain their location in a bid to nab the accused.