Date of Publishing:05/10/2010

Location:Pune

Victim got SMS saying she had won £750,000. A complaint has been filed at Vimantal police station

Yet another victim fell to the charms of Nigerian fraudsters. This time, it was a 20-year-old engineering student who received a text message informing her that she had won £750,000 through a lottery and was asked by the fraudsters to deposit money in various bank accounts. Viman Nagar resident Supriya Bhadale obeyed and thus ended up losing over Rs 2 lakh.

COMPLAINT LODGED

Supriya has now lodged a complaint against four people at Vimantal police station. The Cyber Crime cell of Pune Police is investigating the case.

THE SMS

"In March 2010, I got an SMS on my cellphone stating that I had won £750,000 through a lottery. When I dialled the number mentioned in the SMS, a person told me to deposit money in various bank accounts, which I did. But after that, I did not get any response." Supriya interacted with the fraudsters from March 18 to July 16, 2010.

"When I got the message, I called up on the number mentioned in the SMS. The contact number was an International number, but the person who answered the call was an Indian. He gave me a few account numbers of ICICI bank and instructed me to deposit some money in those accounts. I deposited money in various accounts a few times. But even after that, I did not get the prize money. It was then that I realised that all this was a fraud," Supriya added.

THE FRAUD

Supriya deposited a total of Rs 2,11,000 in various bank accounts. Sub Inspector Y G Nikam of Vimantal police station said, "A case has been lodged against four people. According to the statement given by the complainant, the persons who contacted her introduced themselves as D J Valmase working as publicity secretary in Coca Cola company in UK, Scott Smith working as a remittance officer in Natwest Bank in UK, Edward Brown who called himself a British diplomat, and Shabina Mishra who said she’s a foreign remittance officer in the Reserve bank of India."

INVESTIGATIONS ON: COPS

"With the help of Cyber Crime Cell, we are verifying the details provided to Supriya. We have also written a letter to the Reserve Bank of India to verify whether there is anyone with the name of Shabina Mishra working with them. Supriya had deposited the money eight times in various bank accounts in ICICI bank. We have also written a letter to ICICI bank asking them to provide details of the bank accounts to which the transactions were made."

Web Resource for Reference of the Above Mentioned Article:

• PUNE MIRROR