Microsoft’s Nokia takeover turns handy for cheats

Hyderabad: The news that Microsoft has acquired Nokia has come in handy for cyber fraudsters to defraud gullible individuals.

Several people in the city have received emails about the “multi-million British pound lottery as part of the first online promotion programme conducted by Microsoft to reconnect people with Nokia.”

The recipients are told that they are among the 30 people who have won lottery worth Rs 4 crore. By sending forged receipts of customs and tax departments and by calling them pretending to be RBI officials the conmen convinced the victims to deposit lakhs as “processing” charges.

“After Microsoft took over Nokia the fraudsters sent emails claiming to be officials of the company and convinced the victims that the lottery is part of their promotion attempts. The victims are made to believe they have to pay multiple charges to get their prize money worth crores. Such cases are coming out now,” said central crime station DCP Pala Raju.

Police believe it’s a continuation of the notorious Nigerian lottery fraud. Since such cases have been reported by the media several times the fraudsters are now using new techniques.

Cyber experts say the crooks have sent the same emails to thousands of people. The emails claim, “You have been selected randomly from e-mail addresses of individuals and mobile phone users by an advanced automated random computer search. The selection was carried out randomly by our computerised email selection machine (Topaz) from a database of over 250,000,000 email addresses from all continents. Please note that your lucky ticket and ballot number falls within our African booklet representative (Nokia office) in South Africa. This lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also licensed by the International Association of Gaming Regulations. You are one of the luckiest 30 people on this planet.”

Several cyber crooks, who are mainly from Nigeria operate from Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad. On Saturday four Nigerians staying in Hyderabad were caught by the police for cheating a BTech graduate in the name of Nigerian lottery.

DCP Pala Raju said that people should be very careful and should not respond to such emails. “The public should be aware of these conmen and must not fall for their gimmicks,” he said.