fraudster

Kaun Banega Crorepati

Bangalore

SBI

A 56-year-old teacher lost Rs 12.25 lakh to awho claimed he was from(KBC), the TV show. The fraudsters first called her in the month of August stating that she had won Rs 30 lakh in a lucky draw. She then received a call from them after a month telling her that she was selected as a finalist to claim Rs 1 crore and that she could claim the money instantly. By the end of October, she ended up paying Rs 12.25 lakh in different transactions to receive her prize amount. Even then, the fraudsters continued to call her, asking her to pay Rs. 10,000 to claim the money and told her that she would get a refund on it.Mirror had reporte a similar case in September earlier this year.Gowri (name changed), a resident of Kengeri and a teacher in a government primary school in Ramanagara has filed a complaint with the Kengeri police on Tuesday. Gowri said that she started receiving calls from the fraudsters in the month of August and claimed that they are still calling her, asking her to pay Rs. 10,000. She said, “I received a call on August 8 and the man identified himself as Rajesh Bala, a representative from KBC. He told me that I was the lucky winner and had won Rs. 30 lakh which would be given to me by KBC and State Bank of India ().I did not believe him at first but he continued to call me for a couple of days asking me to provide my photographs and confirm my identity. I gave my details and he sent me a certificate which stated that I had won Rs. 36 lakh. He then asked me to make a payment for the prize money to be released to me and kept telling me that the prize money had increased from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 50 lakh. By the end of the month, he had convinced me to part with more money for the prize amount to be released. Assuring me that the amount I was paying would be refunded, he managed to take over Rs. 10 lakh from me.”The accused told her to be patient and wait for the money to be credited to her account. After a month, Gowri received another call in October from another man who claimed to be from SBI. Gowri said, “This man identified himself as Rana Prathap Singh and told me that my name was selected as a finalist to win the Rs 1 crore prize. I told him that I did not receive my refund money nor the gift prize. He told me that the person who had called me earlier (Bala) was a fraud and he had received my file only on that day. He told me that I should cooperate with him to apprehend Bala so that I could get my money back. He told me to send him some money to unlock the gift prize. By the end of October, I had paid Rs 2.5 lakh to him including tax and other things in different transactions.”Gowri said that the man was still in touch with her and kept sending her acknowledgments and other certificates to gain her trust. By the end of November, the man started asking her to make Rs. 10,000 as a final transaction to receive all the money back. Gowri added, “Even after four months I did not receive any money from them and could not believe that it was a scam. I filed a complaint with the police on Tuesday and even after that I have been receiving calls from the man, asking me to trust him.”Bangalore Mirror had reported a similar case in September 2019, where a salon technician in Whitefield lost Rs 73,000 trying to get the prize money worth Rs 25 lakh released. In that case too, a man who called himself Rana Pratap Singh and associated himself with SBI, had asked the victim to deposit money into a SBI account.Gowri added that she did not have that much money with her and she had to take a Rs 5 lakh loan from her friends and for the rest money, she had to pledge all her gold and silver ornaments.