A schoolteacher and her husband, a railway employee, were the latest victims to online fraudsters, who cheated them to the tune of about ₹20 lakh after stating that the woman had won ₹90 lakh in a lottery run by a Finnish multinational communication and technology company.
It all started on July 19, 2015 when K. Jayanthi, a private schoolteacher, received an SMS in her mobile phone stating that she was the lucky winner of ₹90 lakh in the lottery run by the company, and she could get the amount credited in her account after making initial service charges.
The teacher, instead of ignoring it as a ‘prank message’, informed her husband G. Kannan (52), a commercial clerk at Paramakudi railway station, of the development, S. Rajadurai, Inspector of Police, District Crime Branch (DCB), said.
Then the couple started interacting with four fraudsters – all hailing from New Delhi – and credited ₹20 lakh in the accounts of different persons, as suggested by them, in more than 20 transactions before growing suspicious of the entire deal, he said.
The four fraudsters – Mahima, Sonali, Anitha Sharma, who claimed herself to be a Bank Manger (Operations), and John Martin, purportedly from the mobile company –made the couple credit money in different accounts through the branches of Axis Bank, Canara Bank and State Bank of India here, he said.
As there was no sign of the teacher getting the prize money even after paying ₹20 lakh, the couple grew suspicious and approached Superintendent of Police N. Manivannan on Tuesday and lodged a complaint.
On the advice of the SP, the DCB registered a first information report against the fraudsters under Sections 420 and 120 (b) of the Indian Penal Code, and Sections 71 and 74 of the Information Technology Act.
After completing preliminary investigation, the DCB is likely to transfer the case to the Cyber Crime Branch of the CB-CID, sources said.
Fraudsters continued to cheat gullible people despite warnings by the government, banks, financial institutions and the police against paying heed to such messages, the police said.
