BENGALURU: An elderly citizen’s wait for three years to win `5 crore prize, which she had won in an online quiz contest, has come to a sad and abrupt end. During the period, the woman lost `1.3 crore to the fraudsters in a bid to get the total prize money and went bankrupt. Her husband too passed away in December 2014, leaving her alone to fight the challenges of life.
Revathi (52) and her husband Late Venugopal who worked as a senior scientist in Gandhi Krishi Vignan Kendra (GKVK) had fallen prey to the cyber fraud in January 2014 itself. However, only recently she realised that she was being tricked. She subsequently filed a complaint at the cyber crime police of Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
In January 2014, Revathi’s husband Venugopal took an online quiz competition at a cyber cafe near his home. The very next day he got a call from a man who introduced himself as Dr Howard Jerry. He told Venugopal that he had won a prize money of `5 crore and was coming to India to hand him over the money.
After three days, unsuspecting Venugopal was asked to transfer Rs 4 lakh for some clearance at the airport, which he did in a hurry. This saga continued for few months and he kept on paying money in installments, believing that he would get the prize money someday. However, in December 2014, Venugopal died of illness.
After his demise, the fraudster contacted Revathi, who informed him about the tragedy. The fraudster took advantage of the situation and promised to transfer money in her name. He demanded money to change the name of the winner and for other multiple reasons and Revathi obliged.
‘Relatives warned, but I didn’t listen’
“Few of my relatives informed me that I was falling prey to a scamster. However, I assumed that they were jealous and hence ignored them. A year ago, my son came to know about it and he also insisted that I stop. But, I continued to transfer money. Every time Howard asked for money, I transferred money to his account trusting he would give away the prize money. I realized I had fallen prey to a fraud only last month. We had transferred `1.30 crore by then,” she said in the complaint.
“I have lost everything. My husband had insurance policies in my name, which I have withdrawn. I sold our land and also took loans from multiple banks to win the prize money. I am now using the pension amount to repay the loans I have taken from banks and friends,” Revathi told Express as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Senior citizens are easy targets
The Cyber crime police said that elderly citizens are easy targets for cyber fraudsters. “Neither they are technology-savy nor they know about emerging trends of cyber crime. Usually in such cases, the fraudsters also tell these elderly citizens to keep the matter secret and these people oblige blindly,” an officer said. Chances of tracing those fraudsters are slim in these cases. The fraudsters either transfer money from one account to another, withdraw them or convert them into bitcoins. “Their network is very big and with present technology, it is hard to trace the source of fraud”.
Not the first such case
In July 2016, a 59-year old retired teacher lost Rs 36 lakh after she was lured to get funds from abroad to run an NGO. The same month, another case was registered where a 58-year-old deputy director of department of printing and stationery fell prey to the online lottery scam by losing Rs 28 lakh to get the prize money of Rs 3 crore.