Scammers on WhatsApp lured a young man in to an iPhone 14 Pro Max lucky draw contest to steal over Rs 4.2 lakh. A 23-year-old man from Mumbai was approached by scammers on WhatsApp who told him that he had won an iPhone 14 Pro Max in a lucky draw. They also claimed that he had won Rs 36 lakh worth lottery, reported The Free Press Journal.
He was informed that the lucky draw was organised by an electronics shop and that his iPhone is already on its way to him.
However, when he called the WhatsApp number, he was asked to pay taxes to claim the prize. The victim, a furniture shop owner, made 34 transactions and paid around Rs 4.26 lakh to the scammer. Later, when he still did not get the iPhone or the lottery, he realised that he was conned. He then decided to contact the police and report for fraud.
The police registered an offence under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66C (identity theft), 66D (cheating by personation by using computer resource) of the Information Technology Act.
He also provided the WhatsApp phone number fraudsters used to contact him and the beneficiary account number to which he paid the money. He further informed the police that he had kept the money in his account for his sister’s wedding.
This is not the first time that a person was scammed and duped of lakhs of hard-earned money. Recently, a Delhi Police official lost over Rs 2 lakh due to PhonePe cashback offer scam. Here, the officer was asked to download an app to claim the cashback amount he had won on a PhonePe transaction.
As soon as he did that, the scammers got access to his phone and stole over Rs 2 lakh from his account. Later, four scammers were arrested from Mumbai and the stolen money was also recovered.
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