How Bihar man cheated Thirumalagiri woman of Rs. 28.86L in guise of Shopclues lottery

The police seized Rs. 3.50 lakh cash, bank account with Rs. 8 lakh, and Rs. 21 lakh debit freeze accounts.

Venkayamma, a resident of Thirumalagiri, ordered earphones from Shopclues in August 2021. On 30 August, she received calls from a man who introduced himself as Ashok from Shopclues and informed her that she had won a lottery (car) worth Rs. 15,01,500. He told her she could claim the amount instead of the car. Venkayamma wanted to claim the amount. The caller then asked her to pay Rs. 8,500 to claim the money.

As per the caller's instructions, Venkayamma transferred the amount to an SBI account on 7 September. She received calls from different mobile numbers and they asked her to transfer a total of Rs. 28,86,820 to three different bank accounts from 7 to 11 September. They said the amount was for various fees like processing fees, registration charges, and other charges. Venkayamma filed a complaint when she realised that she had been cheated.

Based on her complaint, the police registered a case and started an investigation. Based on the technical evidence collected, the police went to Bihar and apprehended Rajesh Kumar Mahato. He was brought to Hyderabad and produced before the court and sent to judicial remand.

During the investigation, it was revealed that Rajesh was involved in 22 cases – four cases in Rachakonda commissionerate, six in Hyderabad city, seven in Cyberabad commissionerate, and one each in Asifabad, Nirmal district, Suryapet district, New Delhi, and Jhansi.

Luring victims with gifts, lotteries

The police found that Rajesh initially used to procure bank accounts and SIM cards with fake details and gave them to his associates. In 2018, he started procuring data by paying the source (data provider) and also obtained bank accounts with fake KYC details and SIM cards with fake details. He and his associates lured the victims in the guise of giving them gifts and by telling them they had won lotteries from different e-commerce portals. They also offered loans on behalf of different banks and Dhani App Loan.

The called the victims from different numbers to make them believe that the calls were from customer care executives and customer support centres. According to Rajesh's instructions, his associates extracted money from victims in multiple transactions in the name of processing fee and clearance/no objection charges.

Rajesh also obtained credentials and OTPs from victims, then changed the phone number linked to the bank account, and moved the entire funds to his bank accounts. After withdrawing the amounts, he destroyed all the SIMs linked to the accounts along with the mobile phones to avoid being tracked down by the police.