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Journal of
Frauds
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Cyber
Fraud Resources
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Looking for Indiaforensic
Research Foundation |
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What
happens if you donot delete the Spam ?
MUMBAI:
When Srikant Mhatre (name changed), an engineering student
got an email from Silver Birds Lottery in February
congratulating him for winning an online lottery worth
five million Euros, he did not hit the delete button like
most other net-savvy surfers might have done.
The gullible 19-year-old promptly got into the act without
verifying the credentials of the sender. "The company
had furnished their phone number, address and a reference
number which I was supposed to quote in all my mail,"
he says. His parents (father, a mercantile navy
officer),who knew little about the internet were also
easily convinced. The jubilant Mhatre family called up
Mark Richard, their ‘claims agent’, based in Nigeria.
He sent them a claims form, which was duly filled with
classified information like passport number, bank account
number, contact number etc.
Then the first payment, $ 500 was made towards ‘shipping
charges’. "They said it was for the courier charges
for the documents they would be sending us," says
Mhatre. It was followed by $ 4,265 which went as ‘parcel
clearance charge’ and another 7000 Euro for
‘activation clearance’. Receipts of the payments came
from the ‘Nigerian Shipping Agency’. Though the
receipt spelt Nigeria as ‘Nigeia’, the Mhatres were
too taken by the whole affair to notice.
"Now they have told us to pay 6,910 Euro as tax
payment. If we don’t pay it by December 8, we will lose
our money," says Mhatre. It was only when an internet
search traced the ‘fraud warning’ note posted against
‘Silver Birds Lottery’ that the Mhatres learned that
they had been duped of Rs 5.25 lakh.
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UK
Overseas Lotto Ltd, World Claim Lottery International, Raboas
International Lottery, Royal Spanish Sweepstake International,
Lotto Net international...more than 500 names have been listed
on the online lottery fraud website and more are added every
day. In the US, it’s a fast spreading cyber crime with as much
as $3.2 billion (according to National Consumers League) bilked
from individuals and businesses in the last one year alone.
"It seems to be catching on in Mumbai. Most of these
companies are based in Nigeria.
The things one needs to look out for in such mail is spelling
mistakes, grammatical errors or the common phrases that these
letters contain," said an official from the Mumbai police
cyber crime lab. Phrases like "all participants were
selected through a computer ballot system" or "any
breach of confidentiality on the part of winners will result in
disqualification" should put one on one’s guard.
"Only the telephone numbers given are genuine so that they
can demand money ostensibly to clear taxes and freight charges
when you call up," the inspector adds.
Although there are no statistics on the number of people duped
by such agencies, one case, that of a Pune businessman who lost
Rs 15 lakh this year, has turned into an anecdote which is
regularly put to use by the cyber crime lab for spreading
awareness.
"A few months ago my mailbox was jammed with such mails
from a person based in Nigeria. I didn’t respond though,"
says consumer rights activist Shirish Deshpande, adding that no
complaints have reached their forum yet. "People don’t
file complaints," rues the official from the cyber crime
cell. "But we’ve also had cases where people refuse to
believe it’s a fraud. A businessman went ahead with the
payment recently as he did not want to lose Rs 50 crore for a
few lakhs."
Source:Times
of India
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