Hyderabad: “My name is Miss Iman Muhammad. I am a 22-year-old from Syria and my father is late Hafez Amin Muhammad who was killed last month by the Islamic State tgerrorists. I saw your email profile on international email database and I become interested to know you more.
I will be very happy to know more about you because I have something very important to tell you. Attached is my photograph (sic),” is a message many people in Hyderabad received recently. Those who replied were told she had inherited gold worth crores and were asked to help to import it to India. Police says this is a new way found by scammers to trap the gullible.
Police said there are no Syrians behind these emails. These are bulk emails sent by Nigerian scammers who are trying to extort money. Cyber crime inspector Riyazuddin said a realtor from Kukatpally was cheated by these scammers. The victim, Srinivas Chalagalla, who trusted the sender, ended up paying Rs 6 lakh to the scammers believing that he would get a huge amount as commission.
The crook, who pretended to be a Syrian woman, had told Srinivas that she wanted to buy property in Hyderabad as Syria was facing war and he should help her move her money to India.
“If people reply to these emails the scammers send forged ID cards and documents to prove the existence of assets worth crores. When the victim gets convinced the fraudsters ask him to help him move the assets to India.
The victim will be told that the assets are stuck in airports and he should pay some customs charges to release it. The bank accounts in which the victim deposit money would be used only for the racket,” said an officer from Cyber Crime.
“The scammers would also call victims on the phone pretending to be customs officials to convince them that the goods have arrived,” added the official. Officials say that it is better not to reply to strangers' emails which contain unrealistic offers.
