NEW DELHI: Fraudsters have been making phone calls to unsuspecting people to collect their personal details including bank account credentials to eventually dupe them of lakhs of rupees — by luring them into the trap of the “KBC Lottery”.
The miscreants have been frauding people in a similar manner since long, and even as a small percentage of people fall prey to the trap, the fraudsters still end up duping thousands of people — and many of them don’t approach police to file an FIR. In March this year, three men were arrested from Bihar for allegedly duping in the name of “KBC lottery”.
In her complaint, a woman said she received a WhatsApp call from a Pakistani number and was told that she won Rs 25 lakh in the “KBC lottery”. She was then asked to call another Pakistani number through Whatsapp and talk to Rana Pratap Singh, who would provide her the details of the prize money.
The woman, who had no clue about the scam, fell into the trap. She was asked to deposit several lakhs of rupees towards “GST and processing fees” in multiple Indian bank accounts. Later, she was told the lottery amount has been increased to Rs 45 lakh, and again to Rs 75 lakh. Hence, she was instructed to deposit more money.
The accused eventually duped her of around Rs 40-45 lakh. In 2018, the Mumbai Police, in response to a similar query tweeted: “Please do not share any sensitive details over a call and visit the nearest police station for further support.” To give a dash of credibility to their work, the scamsters also use photographs of Amitabh Bachchan, the host of “Kaun Banega Crorepati” (KBC).
The shooting of the 12th season of the Amitabh Bachchan-hosted show is currently underway in Mumbai with all necessary precautions to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
