Shimla: Perhaps in one of its kind case in India, an apple orchard owner in Rohru was duped to the tune of Rs 40 lakhs through a cyber crime after he responded to an email soliciting that he had won a jackpot lottery prize of over Rs 1 crore.
Police officer of Rohru sub-division, Shiv Kumar Sharma said “a case under section 420, 34 of Indian Penal Code has been registered against one Dr Nikolsan, a foreigner, for having defrauded Ramesh Zinta, a 56 year old resident of Siyao village in Rohru Tehsil, of nearly Rs 40 lakhs.â€
The complaint records that Zinta had received an email 3rd September 2010 from Dr Nikolsan stating the he had won a lottery of Rs 1,03,10,890/-.
Dr Nikolsan had introduced himself as a representative of United Kingdom based Genesis Pharmaceutical & Lab Ltd company.
To obtain the surprise jackpot prize, Zinta was asked to come to Delhi for completing related paperwork and obtain the large sum.
At Delhi, the complainant met one Adrew Kavin, who narrated a tale that while heading to Reserve Bank of India for trying to exchange the currency, the amount was seized by CBI and money was needed to release the prize money amount.
During the period and through subsequent email correspondence, the fraudsters succeeded in extracting a sum in the range of Rs 35 to 40 lakhs from Zinta on one pretext of the other, said the police officer.
Several installments with two of them amounting to Rs 6.5 lakhs were deposited in different bank accounts over the past ten months in the hope.
In all the cash deposits were made in 17 bank accounts, with the last deposit having been withdrawn from a Mumbai ATM.
Police was only approached after the phone calls and email responses from the fraudsters turned cold.
“After registering the case, investigations have been initiated and we hope to achieve a breakthrough in the crime,†said Sharma.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
This is very common crime Government should come out with cautionary messages in Local Language news papers every 2-3 months.