Beware citizens: Girl duped of lakhs on pretext of winning TV contest

(UP), Feb 22: A 19-year old student was duped of Rs 1.38 lakhs by an unknown fraudster on the pretext of winning a TV contest. She had participated in a jackpot contest in January 2014 after seeing a TV show and was assured that she had won a car.

Tabassum, the victim, got a call from an unidentified person on February 4 who said that he belonged to a renowned TV show. He informed her that she was the lucky winner of a car in a contest that asked "Who is in Dhoom 3 - Aamir Khan or Salman Khan?"

The girl said,"After sending the answer on a 4-digit number, I, on Feburary 4, received a call from an unknown person who posed himself as one Raj Malhotra calling from a famous TV show. He told me on phone that I have won the contest and for this, his company would award me a car as prize. He also offered me that if I am not interested in taking car, I can take prize money running into Rs 6.65 lakh. Thereafter, I chose the second option."

Raj Malhotra, the one who duped her, then asked her for the address to send the prize money. This was followed by a series of demands for money as deposits to acquire the prize money.

Tabassum was first asked to deposit Rs 12,600 into his company bank account.
Following his instructions, I deposited the same amount into an account given by him. Few minutes later, he called up and told me that since I had a student bank account, I have to open current bank account. After doing this, I would then get the prize money," she said.

Tabassum spoke to the bank manager regarding this, but was refused. "After this, I called up him again and asked him that my student account cannot be changed into a current bank account. Hearing this, he then offered me that his company would arrange current account for her if I deposited Rs 15,500 into an account. I also deposited the same amount into this account given by Malhotra. On different occasions, I have deposited a total of Rs 1.34 lakh into bank accounts given by Malhotra," she added.

She finally headed for the Kothwali police station on FRiday, sensing something fishy.

Superintendent of Police, Shiv Hari Meena said that the police has kept Raj Malhotra's phone and his bank accounts under surveillance, said an N18 report.

OneIndia News