DIMAPUR, FEBRUARY 15 (MExN): The Nagaland Police today cautioned against dubious SMS, email or phone calls, which informs the recipient of winning a lottery jackpot.
These messages are the handiwork of con-artists, who through the lure of a big lottery prize will fool gullible people into parting with cash as ‘advance deposit’ to claim a non-existent prize. Informing this, PRO of the Police Headquarters, SP (Crime), M. Tungoe in a press statement through DIPR today said it is investigating several instances of such ‘lottery scams.’ The police said the main complication of such cases was recovering the money paid by the clients.
The police described the scam as “a type of advance-fee fraud which begins with an unexpected email notification, phone call or text message (SMS) saying that ‘You have won’ a large sum of money.” However, one cannot win a lottery prize unless one bought a genuine lottery ticket, it informed.
Normally, in genuine lotteries, the organisers or the people behind the draw will deduct statutory fees and taxes as well as bank and courier charges from the prize. The remaining amount is subsequently handed over to the winner.
Tungoe, while urging the public to not respond to messages claiming dubious lottery prizes further requested all concerned to share and disseminate information in any platform possible in public interest. For any assistance/information, e-mail: NagalandPolice16@gmail.com or crimebranchphqkma@gmail.com. Facebook users can also visit the page – ‘Cid Nagaland’, which is run by the Nagaland Police.
