We have heard about many cases of online lottery scams in which people are told that they have won a lottery and they need to submit fees for customs, RBI sanction and other charges; however, they get nothing even after paying a huge amount.
The Bengaluru cops have come across a case which can be termed as one of the biggest online scams. A couple became the target of Nigerian online lottery scam and lost Rs 1.3 crore in the name of fraudulent charges which they paid in hope of getting the lottery amount of Rs. 5 crore.
Husband got retired from GKVK, University of Agricultural Sciences, where he used to work as a scientist. In January 2014, he played an online quiz and got a call the next day from a person who claimed to be from Shell Oil company, UK.
As the scientist was not aware of such frauds, he talked to the person who assured him that he would come to Delhi with the prize money of Rs. 5 crore and hand it over to the scientist personally.
The scientist was asked to pay for the custom procedures, RBI sanction, etc. and he kept paying till he died in December 2014. The fraudster called on the scientist’s phone but as the scientist was dead, the call was taken by his wife.
The fraudster talked to the woman and told her about the lottery won by her husband and asked her to pay the remaining amount needed to transfer the money. She kept on paying the fraudster till May 2017 from December 2014.
The lady at last realized that she had been cheated and “lodged a complaint with Bengaluru police”. Last week, on July 11, the 52-yr lady from Allalasandra filed a complaint in the cybercrime police station which is in the city police commissionerate. The lady told TOI that till now, an amount of Rs. 1.3 crore (Rs. 1,30,04,000) has been paid to the scamster. She hopes to get the culprits punished and get her money back.
As per cops, the husband had withdrawn from his savings, mortgaged his property and took loan on his LIC policies in order to pay for the charges for claiming the lottery money.
The accused told his name as Howard Jerry and wanted the lady to deposit a final amount of Rs. 6.5 lakh for taking an affidavit from the SC. He assured her that the lottery money would be dropped at her house and this was when the widow realized that she and her husband had been cheated and she was left with no money.
A case has been registered by the cyber wing and investigation has started.
Be safe and don’t fall in such traps.
