He fell in a trap after receiving an SMS stating he had won a
lottery worth Rs4 crore.
A Surat-based chartered accountant ended losing more than Rs70,000 after falling prey to an online scam. The victim fell into the trap after being lured with an email which said that he had won a lottery of five lakh Great Britain Pounds (Four crore rupees).
It all started during Navratri, when Sanjay Arora (name changed), a resident of Surat, and a CA by profession, received an SMS stating his mobile number was chosen as one of the winners of 2009 international mobile lottery. Arora was ecstatic believing the lottery was a gift from Goddess Durga.
As directed in the SMS, Arora sent his personal details to an email address. He soon received a reply asking him to get in touch with their representative of Asia region. Arora spoke to him after which he received an other email asking him to deposit 150 GBP (Rs12,000) in a bank account.
The CA complied with the directive and deposited the funds in the account number given to him. He then deposited a further Rs59,500 in another account as fund transfer charges. Arora said he did not mind paying the money as it was nothing as compared to what the lottery prize amount.
"There was no reason to not believe them as I had even spoken to the people many times. The bank account numbers they gave me for depositing money had PAN and other details. Moreover, I even received a certificate from Reserve Bank of India (which was a fake one), saying the money would be transferred to my bank account on payment of the charges," he said.
Arora, however, felt suspicious when he was asked to deposit a further Rs2.34 lakh towards conversion charges for converting the prize money into rupees. "I spoke to them after being told to pay more money, but they were unable to give satisfactory answers. I realized my mistake and asked them to return my money, but to no avail," he said.
Arora is now planning to take legal action against the scamsters. "I have already submitted an application before Surat commissioner of police and state government. In fact, the crime branch recorded my statement on Monday and they are likely to register a case in connection to the fraud," he added.
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