KOCHI: A dubious app has been selling Kerala Lottery tickets online, cheating hundreds of customers and violating the provisions of the Kerala Paper Lotteries (Regulation) Rules, 2005. The app -- Kerala Lottery Online -- uses the picture of former minister Kadakampally Surendran releasing an Onam bumper ticket and offers online purchase of lottery tickets. The scam may run into crores of rupees as many customers have complained that they have purchased tickets in bulk. The app has more than five lakh downloads and as per reports, most of the sales are done outside the state.
According to the Kerala lottery department, the state is selling only paper lottery and online sale of the tickets has been banned. There are more than 1,000 reviews in the app and many customers have complained that the tickets vanish once the results are announced.
“I think there is some cheating going on through this app. I purchased 25 tickets of Summer Bumper BR 84. The display of tickets was there till the date of draw. Just after the time, my tickets vanished and not to be found in the drawn list too. I tried to complain and there was no response,” wrote Johnson Correya on March 31.
“In today’s Nirmal lottery draw NR 272, My ticket number was NA 399970. YouTube live showed that 9970 has won the fourth prize of Rs 5,000. But my lottery ticket is not showing,” wrote Chinmoy Dodak on April 15. Officers at the lottery department said they have been receiving hundreds of complaints regarding online lottery sellers. “We have received complaints about the fraud and have filed a complaint with the police department. An investigation is on and we are waiting for the report,” said lotteries director S Abraham Renn.
“These online firms are using the credibility of Kerala Lotteries to cheat the gullible. There is not one but many fraudsters. They display a few tickets and sell the same ticket to multiple customers. We have filed more than 50 complaints with the ADGP, crime branch, who is in charge of lottery frauds, and district police authorities. We receive at least 10 complaints a day. The department has been issuing clarification that there is no legal validity for online sale of lotteries but people continue falling prey to such fraudsters,” said lotteries department joint director B Surendran.
MINISTER ORDERS ACTION
KOCHI: Finance minister K N Balagopal has directed the lottery department to take stringent action against dubious firms cheating customers offering online sale of Kerala Lottery. “The Kerala Lottery is not sold online and we had taken action against some firms earlier. Kerala Lottery online seems to be a new fraudster. We will conduct a campaign to sensitise customers against the fraud,” he told TNIE.