Lottery lure turns costly: Hyderabad woman duped of Rs 1.8 crore; fraudsters pose as Mukesh Ambani, RBI officials | Hyderabad News
HYDERABAD: A promise of a Rs 2 crore lottery windfall, reinforced by the name of Mukesh Ambani and forged documents bearing the Prime Minister’s photograph, cost a 77-year-old Hyderabad woman nearly everything she had as cyber fraudsters siphoned off Rs 1.8 crore from her bank accounts over nine months.The Barkatpura resident approached Hyderabad cyber crime police on Wednesday, alleging that fraudsters posed as the industrialist and later as RBI officials to systematically drain her savings using fake bank paperwork and remote access to her phone.According to the complaint, the woman first received unsolicited WhatsApp calls in Feb claiming she had won a Rs 2 crore jackpot in an online lottery. When she ignored the initial call, the fraudsters contacted her again two weeks later, this time with a man introducing himself as ‘Mukesh Ambani’. Invoking the industrialist’s name, the caller persuaded her to share details of her Indian Overseas Bank account to facilitate the prize transfer.“After knowing that my bank account did not have internet banking facility, the fraudster posing as Ambani made me go to the bank, activate net banking and took credentials. After couple of days he told me that they could not transfer the whole amount in one account and asked to give another account number. He sent a fake document with my photo, name and PM’s photo stating that they received an RBI letter to transfer Rs 2 crore,” she told police.She was subsequently asked to activate net banking for her accounts with State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.“The fraudsters posing as RBI officials took Aadhaar card and PAN card copies of mine and my husband. They also took photos of my debit cards and sent a link to access my phone,” she said.Between March 13 and Dec 8, the fraudsters emptied funds from four bank accounts – Indian Overseas Bank, SBI, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank – through 123 small value transactions, a pattern police suspect was used to evade automatic detection systems.They also convinced her to prematurely close fixed deposits held jointly with her husband, claiming that RBI rules required proof of equivalent balances in her accounts before the prize money could be credited.The fraud surfaced when the woman visited one of her banks and discovered only ₹6,000 left in her account. Unable to reach the callers thereafter, she approached cyber crime police.Police registered a case under sections 66-C and 66-D of the Information Technology Act and 111(2)(b) (organised crime), 318(4) (cheating) and 319(2) (cheating by personation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
