Yet Another Man Falls Prey To Fake Online Lottery, Pays Rs. 46 Lakh to Fraudsters

Hyderabad:  A man from Bowenpally here on Thursday approached Central Crime Station (CCS) police complaining that he had lost Rs.46 lakh after he was conned to deposit the money to get a lottery prize money.

According to the police, Praveen Kumar, a native of Sirisilla of Karimnagar district, shifted to Bowenpally here and was working as a labour contractor. Two months back he got a message from an unknown number stating that he was selected as the winner of ‘lucky lottery of ESPN and Starsports’ for a prize money of Rs.2.5 crore. When he called back on that number, some persons claiming that they were speaking from that company, congratulated Praveen for winning the ‘bumper lottery’ and he was conned to deposit Rs. 20,000 towards ‘delivery charges’ to the account number they directed in order to receive the amount of lottery. Praveen deposited the amount to their account.

Later in the process, Praveen was asked to deposit some more money in the name of RBI clearance, customs clearance, anti-terrorist clearance to get the full amount of prize money. A gullible Praveen borrowed money in lakhs from his friends and relatives and deposited Rs. 46 lakhs to different accounts from three different banks which he was directed. To make him believe, the cyber criminals also sent the receipts to Praveen for all the deposits he made. Whenever Praveen asked about the lottery money, the fraudsters would tell some story or the other.

Meanwhile, the money lenders started pressurizing Praveen to repay the loans taken from them. When the situation turned serious, Praveen called back the ‘lottery organisers’ and confronted them about the money in front of the lenders. When the vexed money lenders asked him, Praveen revealed the matter of Rs. 2.5 crore lottery for which he borrowed all the money from them. Shocked by this, his friends and lenders let Praveen know that he was cheated by the cyber criminals by alluring him to deposit money in lakhs in the guise of lottery.

Praveen then approached CCS police on Thursday and lodged a complaint about the same. Police registered a case of cyber crime and said that the ‘fake lottery’ might have exercised by some gang of cyber criminals from New Delhi. The investigation is on.