Rs 5.50-cr lottery 'loot' in Raghuram Rajan's name

Deposit Rs 15,500 in cash and win Rs 5.50 crore. Scamsters have adopted this latest trick to con gullible investors by using the name and picture of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Raghuram Rajan. According to news agency PTI, the 'lottery' amount that these scammers promise to credit into the account of those giving an 'approval fees' is claimed to be part of funds given to RBI by the British government.

In the scam email, purportedly sent by Rajan and ending with his hearty congratulations, the targeted beneficiary is also informed that his or her name was decided pursuant to a meeting he had with the United Nations general secretary Ban Ki-Moon in September.

Asking for this mail to be kept confidential and away from general public for security reason, the scamsters also provide name and details of a money transfer manager with a purported employee ID card of an RBI chief general manager.

As per RBI, such fictitious offers typically try to defraud gullible people by using its name and are also used as a phishing attempt to get personal and banking details of the targeted persons. About another fraud perpetrated in its name, RBI recently said in a public alert that fraudsters were promising to issue credit cards in the name of the Central bank.

Explaining the modus operandi, RBI said that the gullible person is sent a credit card which allows money withdrawal up to a certain limit, albeit a small sum, from a bank account.

Having gained the confidence, the fraudster gets the victim to deposit a huge sum in the same account. Once the money is deposited, the card stops working and that would also be the last time the cardholder would hear from the fraudster.

Warning against such efforts, RBI said it does not carry out any business with an individual, whether through bank accounts, credit or debit cards, online banking or transfer of funds from abroad. Other kind of widely prevalent frauds, as identified by the Central bank, include fictitious offers of large sum of money/lottery winnings by email or through phone calls by posing as RBI official and a fake website of the bank for online transactions.