Agarwaltimes - Agarwal fake winner of KBC

HYDERABAD: Sumit Agarwal (name changed), a resident of Nanakramguda, received a call from an anonymous number informing him that he won a Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) lottery worth Rs two crore with the programme`s jingle playing in the background. An unidentified caller informed Agarwal that apart from the money, he would get an opportunity to meet actor Amitabh Bachchan provided he answers three simple questions. After the telephonic quiz, the caller informed Agarwal that they would get back to him and give details of formalities to claim the amount.

In the subsequent call, the caller directed Agarwal to fill up an online form sent to his email account. The fraudster gathered all personal information, especially banking information from the victim. Agarwal got another call a few days later asking him to deposit a few lakhs as `fee` to get the lottery money.

After paying the fee, Agarwal realised that he was duped and approached cops. Agarwal`s case is not an isolated one as at least five similar frauds were registered in recently in Cyberabad and Hyderabad commissionerates. The victims had lodged complainants claiming that they were conned by unknown telephone callers.

During investigation, the victims and investigators found that these calls were being made from +92 international code (Pakistan). When the fraud was first reported last year, Hyderabad police suspected the telephone numbers and email communication`s IP addresses to be from Pakistan. However, after the arrest of some people in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh by local police in various online frauds, it came to light that caller ID spoofing technology was used to send investigators on a wild goose chase and conclude that the call/email originated from Pakistan.

"Till now, three KBC fraud cases have been reported. During investigation, the phone numbers and IP addresses were traced to Pakistan. We are not completely sure whether the calls originated from Pakistan as the matter is still under investigation as spoofing technology could have also been used for caller IDs," Cyberabad cyber wing inspector Mohammed Riyazuddin said.

According to police, the fraudsters were using spoofing software like Asterisk and Freeswitch. "Though the telephone numbers were traced to +92, bank accounts in which the victims were asked to deposit money were found to be maintained in local banks. The accounts, opened using fake documents, will be operational for a short period after duping the victim and then abandoned," police said.

Agarwaltimes