As soon as Karan Singh Grover who is an actor by profession got Audi Motors’ SMS which seemed to be from UK stating that he had won bumper prize money of Rs. 4.31 crores, not even for a moment the thought of its being fraud came into his mind. And just in few days, he repented for losing Rs. 7.70 lacs for claiming the amount he said to have been won.
It is assumed that some guy belonging to a Nigerian group made contact with him, hiding his real identity and acting as if he was the firm’s general manager, as per cops.
After some time, Karan smelt a rat and realized that he’d actually been deceived or rather fooled but it was too late… It’s quite surprising that he didn’t doubt on the message when they asked him to deposit over Rs. 4 lacs for getting the ‘anti-terrorism certificate by the United Nations’ which would be a proof of prize lottery not being utilized in terrorism activities.
Grover stated in FIR that he got a message which claimed of his winning the prize money on 13th May and for claiming it, the actor sent an email of confirmation to the email address [email protected]. Later, he was informed of a person named Morgan Smith, the GM, who was said to in Delhi and who had the lottery amount. Karan gave his licence’s copy as an identity proof and the following day, he was asked for depositing Rs. 24,000 in the account of Harjit Singh, the agent for custom clearance.
He got a mail from Royal Bank of Scotland’ New Delhi branch in which it was written that Audi Motors have opened an account as well as transferred Rs. 4.31 crores in his name. Additionally, the mail read that he could transfer this amount and for any query, drop a line to some Gracy Joshi.
According to police, “When Grover tried to transfer the cash, he could not proceed as the system asked him for cost of transaction code. He called up Joshi who asked him to deposit Rs. 98,000 for securing the code.”
The official added, “He had to make more deposits for the tax code and demurrage code.”
The actor got a call from Morgan on 20th May in which he was asked for depositing Rs. 4.06 lacs along with United Nations Anti-Terrorism Department’s certificate.
Further on 22nd May, they asked him for another amount, i.e., Rs. 12 lacs as tax on lottery and it was the time when Karan eventually had a realization of being tricked.
A case has been filed under appropriate IPC sections as well as Information Technology Act.
