Prevention is better than cure. I strongly advise not to respond any phone call/sms or e-mail invitng you for lucrative prizes or lottery. In fact, cyber criminals have found it very easy to defraud innocent citizens to make easy money. We have detected many such cases. There are international gangs operating all over the world having sufficient aids and helping hands in various countries. They normally ask innocent people to deposit 4-5 lakhs in certain Bank Accounts in the name of clearance amount or income tax. It is advisable not to attend such calls neither respond to such e-mails and SMSs.
I aenclose here a news cllipping which relates to a case detected by the Cyber Wing of Punjab Police.
Internet Lottery Fraud detected
Punjab Newsline NetworkWednesday, 31 August 2011
CHANDIGARH: The cyber wing of Punjab Crime Branch has busted an international racket of internet lottery fraud and arrested two persons in this connection. The persons were identified as Ibne Hasan of Muzzaffarnagar (UP) and Nauman Ali of Roorkee (Uttarakhand). Both are on police remand for two days.
In this case, a complaint was made by Abhishek, a Mohali resident who received an SMS that he has won a lottery of Rs 25 lakhs and after that he received phone calls to deposit Rupees 1,25,000/ as a clearance amount. The phone calls were originated from Dubai and Pakistan. Interestingly, Abhishek deposited the amount in the Bank Account indicated by the callers.
The investigation was carried out by a team of officials headed by Inspector Charanjeev Lamba of Cyber crime wing of Punjab State Crime Branch. The investigation was supervised by Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh, SSP of State Crime Branch. During investigation it was found that the bank accounts were opened in Roorkee.
Further investigations are going on and efforts are being made to ascertain the identity of accused persons based in Dubai and Pakistan. The preliminary investigtion shows that money is being diverted to Pakistan.
This gang used to send SMS and e-mail to ignorant citizens that they have won lottery and they are asked to deposit certain amount as a clearance charge. People, out of ignorance, are being duped by such gangs.
The SSP advised the common citizens to ignore and delete such SMS and e-mails. However, they should inform the local police or Cyber Crime wing of Punjab Police at Mohali if they are insisted by someone to deposit certain amount. Complainant can be sent through e-mail on the IDs ssp.cyber-pb@nic.in or policehelp100@gmail.com.
[http://punjabnewsline.com/content/internet-lottery-fraud-detected-two-arrested-punjab-crime-branch/33113]
