Srinagar : A lady from Srinagar has allegedly been duped of Rs 22 lakh on the pretext of having won a Lottery, a spokesman of the Police said on Friday.
He said the victim is a resident of Srinagar and recently lodged the complaint with the Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone Srinagar.
He said that a woman aged 35 years hailing from Srinagar reported to Cyber Police Station Srinagar stating that she has duped of Rs 22 lacs by online fraudsters on the pretext of having won a lottery.
“The complainant stated that she received an email/SMS informing her that she had won a lottery and the prize money shall be assigned to her in foreign currency denominations,” said the spokesman.
“The woman accordingly responded to the email and the fraudsters then communicated with the lady on her mobile phone,” he said.
“She was then asked to pay for various charges like registration fee, processing fee, tax etc before the lottery prize money could be transferred to her. The lady then transferred the amount to the tune of Rs 22 lacs (approx) to various bank accounts. The lady after transferring the amount made efforts to call them but was unable to establish contact,” he added.
“It is then the lady realised that she has been cheated by the online fraudsters and no lottery amount was going to come through. The lady accordingly approached the Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone, Srinagar for lodgment of FIR. Accordingly, a case FIR No. 02 of 2020 under relevant sections of law was registered at Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone Srinagar,” said the spokesman.
He said that further investigation in the matter is in progress. Pertinent to mention here that victims of such online frauds usually receive emails/SMS & Calls from unknown sources whereby they are informed that they have won a lottery worth millions.
He said that the victims are trapped in a phased manner and are generally made to transfer a huge amount of money either as money transfer or payment of taxes or transportation cost or either custom clearance etc. The victims generally receive spam emails/SMS and respond to the same thereby end up paying money to some unknown persons for no return. Such crimes are generally carried out from faraway locations using different cyber masks.
“Cyber Police Station advises the general public to remain very careful while receiving such fraud SMS/Emails and Calls from unknown sources with regard to winning of unexpected prize money or lottery, job offers, installation of mobile towers, loan offers, insurance bonus offers etc. Community members are requested not to share any bank details or transfer funds to unknown persons in anticipation of higher returns,” said a police spokesman in a statement.
