Hyderabad: Money rains, but with riders and many more traps. For instance, sample this: “This is to notify you that you have been chosen by the board of trustees of the Catholic Charity Foundation United Kingdom as one of the 250 international recipients for the 2015 cash aid of six million pounds for your own personal, educational and business development. Please respond with your contact details and scanned copy of your Identity proof in order to get the process of fund transfer started.” This was the contents of an email received by hundreds of people in Hyderabad, and possibly elsewhere too, the last week. The Cyber Crime police here, making this pubic, has warned citizens that a new trick is being employed by the ‘419 scammers’.
“419 scam is a typical fraud committed predominantly by crooks from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. The scammer promises victims a huge amount of money, such as winning a lottery prize, inheritance, unclaimed fortune or donations. They are capable of tricking the victims into sending money to the scammer’s account by convincing them through emails or phone calls about the need for ‘facilitation’ payments from this side. Those who are not very used to online tricks fall in the trap.
“These men hide their real identity and location by using fake names and addresses,” said a senior official from Cyber Crime police station.
“The United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU), are donating sums of five hundred million Great Britain pounds towards the Catholic Charity Foundation anniversary as a specific cash aid to over 250 international recipients worldwide in different categories for business, health, educational and personal development and more, so, at least 30 per cent of the (received) money is to be used by each (recipient) for the development of his/her community,” the email said.
The email also contains several other details that can convince even an educated person about the genuineness of the offer. It contains (fictitious) office address, email ID, phone number and other details of the sender. Cops stress no such institution existed in the UK, and a simple Google search will prove this.
