SRINAGAR, June 9: The Jammu and Kashmir police says it is receiving increasing number of complaints from people especially the youth who were duped through the internet and messages sent on their phones for “fake lottery announcements”.
“Following complaints of prank calls, SMS alerts and emails being sent from fake finance companies and other institutions, the general public especially the educated youth are advised to be aware of any such calls sent from these individual,” a police spokesperson said.
In many cases the victims were excited about some easy bucks, he said.
“Some people claiming to be representatives of reputed international companies flash messages on cell phones or emails accounts of youth in the valley informing them they have been specially selected by some particular company as winners after draw of lots of their email accounts or their mobile numbers,” the spokesperson said.
“The prospective winners are then advised to follow certain guidelines for receding the prize money which include payment of processing fees, courier charges etc. By this way many persons have been trapped and deprived of the money so far.”
The police has also identified some phone numbers and email addresses and has advised people not to respond to such calls and messages.
“+919582979230, +919899208231, [email protected] and [email protected] have been established to be involved in such undesirable activities.”
“The trend is still going on with these unscrupulous elements developing innovative methods to cheat people. A random survey indicates that these elements claim themselves to be representatives of Maruti-Suzuki, Microsoft, UK shell lottery etc. Previously a gang of such persons was busted in the country and during investigation their origin was traced to South Africa and Nigeria,” the spokesperson said.
