Lured with ₹25L lottery, vendor loses ₹13 lakh

The police said the accused used eight mobile numbers and several bank accounts to show him they were genuine officers. “We will write to various mobile companies and banks to get details of the accused,” said the police officer

MUMBAI: A 24-year-old vegetable vendor lost around ₹13 lakh over a span of one year to cyber frauds who lured him on the pretext of winning a lottery worth ₹25 lakh.

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According to the police officials, the victim, Kusharinandan Shreeram Prajapati, 24, last year received a WhatsApp message informing him that he had been selected as a lucky draw winner and had won a lottery of ₹25 lakh.

After receiving the message, Prajapati reached out to the frauds, who later kept extracting money from him on various pretexts like GST, Customs duty, airport duty, surcharge and so on.

“Prajapati, after getting the message, got in touch with the senders of the message. The person on the then told him that he would have to complete certain formalities to receive the money,” said the police officer.

Later, other members of the gang called the vegetable vendor, posing as officers of various departments like Customs, GST, airport authority, and income tax, and asked him to pay charges for the same.

The police said the accused used eight mobile numbers and several bank accounts to show him they were genuine officers. “We will write to various mobile companies and banks to get details of the accused,” said the police officer.

“He collectively paid a total of ₹13.15 lakhs to the frauds. However, he did not get the much-awaited lottery money. After narrating the story to one of his friends, he told him that he had been cheated and later approached us,” said a police officer from Sewri police station.

A case has been registered against unknown people under sections 419 (punishment for cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act, 2000.