SRINAGAR: Cyber Police has registered a case against unidentified online fraudsters for extracting Rs 22 lakh from a 35 year old woman after declaring her winner for the lottery she never bought or played.
The case was registered after the woman reported the matter to Cyber Police Station Srinagar.
Police said the complainant had received an email/SMS informing her that she had won a lottery and the prize money will be transferred to her in foreign currency denominations.
Police said she was asked to pay for various charges like registration fee, processing fee, tax etc before the lottery prize money could be transferred .
Unmindful of fraud, the woman transferred of Rs 22 lakhs to various bank accounts. Later her efforts to contact the fraudsters failed as they had either deactivated their numbers or changed their mobiles.
Police said it was then the woman realized that she has been cheated by the online fraudsters and no lottery amount was going to come through. She accordingly approached the Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone which registered a case under relevant sections of law .
Police later issued an advisory cautioning people against falling into the trap of online fraudsters .
“Victims of such online frauds usually receive emails, SMS and calls from unknown sources whereby they are informed that they have won a lottery worth millions. The victims are trapped in a phased manner and generally made to transfer huge amount on different pretexts ”, said a police spokesman.
Police said the victims generally respond to the spam and end up paying money to unknown persons. “Such crimes are generally carried out from faraway locations using different cyber masks”, he said.
