Page 24 - Unleashed BMM 2019-2020

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'VE WON

THE LOTTERY. NOW GIVE US YOUR

HARDEARNED MONEY!

By Saili Nalge

ucky are the ones who win lotteries, but the ones who don’t are deactivate sim cards, close accounts and vanish. The trick behind making
luckier! Remember the last mail you received of an old foreigner the customer wait for ninety days is to subdue their anger. After that they
Lwilling to give you his million dollars before dying! Some of us realize that they are scammed. But it is too late now to even contact the
fall prey to such enticing offers and end up either bankrupt or in some police as the police will counter-enquire the fraud victims instead!
cases, even worse. Countless stories are published daily in newspapers
about online scams and their dangers but to understand the act, it is very SOURCES
important to know the mentality of the person performing the act. Afterall, The telecom company employees are the main source of these scammers
who knows better about online scams than an online scammer himself! to get contacts. They are paid considerably to get these contacts. For the
“It is like the classic con game, The Spanish Prisoner only modernized,” special contacts of high level people, they are paid more. These contacts
says Ramesh Singh, a 35 year-old ex-online fraudster. Singh shares some are called ‘leads’. Additionally, they use a software to extract email IDs.
insight on his life as a former scamster. "I met a Nigerian man in a coffee
shop in Navi Mumbai. After two to three meetings, he offered me work. I CUSTOMER REACTIONS
somewhat knew, it would be illegal as no one would offer a college boy There are two kinds of customers, some bad-mouth the fake callers and
such amount for half a day work; still I was inquisitive as to what his work threaten to lodge a complaint in the police station while some just cry over
was, so I agreed," said Singh recollecting his fateful day where he started the call requesting to return the money. But to no avail because either they
off as a rookie in the business. "First few weeks, I only delivered parcels. forget about it after some months or in the case of a police complaint, the
Later, I joined them in the scam business. I wasn't alone, they had four to authorities do not have the time for such small cases to attend to. Morover,
five Indian boys working for them already. In total, we were a group of the panged customers have no proof rather than a switched off number or
ten doing this business," he added. We often tend to blame the Nigerian a lapsed email ID thus rendering the case ineffective.
immigrants for such frauds but they are powerless without the aid provided
by such Indians. For lottery scams to be carried out, they need sim-cards, NIGERIANS AND WORKPLACE
online accounts, photographs, fake identity proofs. The job of the Indians “They all come to India with their partners to earn. They earn a lot, live a
is to convince the locals to open accounts, buy sim cards, give their photos lavish lifestyle and send money back home. There is a lot of scope in India
and IDs in return for a sum. Nigerians do the desk jobs like keeping to do illegal activities, there are loopholes in law, in Government policies,
records, getting contacts, sending messages, making fake IDs etc. “We corruption is common, easy and reliable,” Singh said. They choose areas
used to usually pick up uneducated people like watchmen of co-operative that are sparsely populated and areas that are awake till late at night since
housing societies, maids, hawkers who easily agree to do the job in return it is easy to work at such places.
for some cash, revealed Singh.
POLICE
THE VICIOUS TRAP It is interesting to note that the law governing authorities are themselves
Randomly, a lottery message/email is sent to 500-1000 people at a time. not bothered about these small scams. Commenting on the callous police
The message reads, “Congratulations!! You've won the lottery, to claim force, Singh said, “They pay attention only if there are a lot of complaints
the lottery please deposit the below mentioned sum of money as the first from the same area or when a particular case gets highlighted by the media
installment.” As soon as the message flashes on the screen, some 20-30 due to the involvement of a prominent personality.
people fall into the trap and pay the amount demanded. The amount is
called 'installment'. Soon, one of the Indian men calls them disguised as When asked the reason behind him getting into the business, he sheepishly
RBI employees and says, “Sir/Madam, an amount of 50 lacs is due to be smiled and said, “I think the lifestyle, the atmosphere and the competition
credited in your account but to convert it into INR we need two lacs.” The which I grew in can be a reason for this. I longed for social approval and
customer generally pays the first installment and the process continues for they offered it to me but at a very huge price!” But as everyone gets a
a month or two until the customer refuses to pay more. Subsequently, the chance to correct themselves, so was the case with Ramesh Singh. He quit
customer is given a period of 90 days to wait until the money is credited the business and now runs a construction business in western suburbs but
to their account. In that period, the people in charge of the whole business the ghosts of all the people he once scammed still haunts him.

24 | UNLEASHED | 2019