Moodbidri: Fake Advertisements Offer Easy Money, Lure Gullible Citizens

Daijiworld Media Network – Moodbidri (SP)

Moodbidri, Aug 3: An advertisement that appeared in a newspaper a few days back, which was repeated on August 2, has been cheating the people by offering the lure of making easy bucks. The advertisement calls upon people to identify the face printed therein and win attractive prizes. The first 500 callers who identify the faces correctly out of options provided therein, are offered gold rings, while a car, Bajaj Pulsar motor bike, and laptop, are offered as first, second, and third prizes.

The advertisement in question carries familiar photographs. While one of the earlier advertisements invited people to identify the photograph of Amitabh Bachchan, the August 2 advertisement appeared with the photograph of cricketer Anil Kumble. Those who were able to identify the faces were called upon to contact phone No. 08651968177, 09534887388, or 08651912502 in the earlier advertisement, while the August 2 advertisement gives mobile numbers that are altogether different. The callers are told that their prizes would arrive through a VPP parcel, and the same have to be claimed from the post office by paying Rs 2,100.

A ninth standard student from a high school in Shirtady Makki called one of the above numbers and identified the photograph as that of Amitabh Bachchan. The person who received the call said the boy had been enlisted as a second prize winner from Karnataka and that he would receive a cheque for Rs 80,000 along with a gold ring weighing five grams through VPP. On August 1, the boy received the parcel, and his family members contacted the said number and got oral confirmation that the parcel indeed contains a cheque and a ring. The family, which had its own doubts, opened the parcel in front of the press men at Press Club here on Tuesday evening, to find that it contained 100 grams of saw dust packed along with waste paper.

The family said they will take legal recourse against the cheaters.

It is learnt that a youth from Shirtady, who was asked to get the parcel of necklace of pearls by paying Rs 510 as VPP charges, received some necklace made of spurious matter.

The parcel received by the student bore the information that it was Ayurvedic Medicine with patent No. 4-K. It did not contain the address of the sender except for an illegible rubber stamp in Hindi, and a speed post label bearing No.  EF114007426. The press men, as a trial, sent a message to one of the numbers appearing in the advertisement, and received a call which said in English that the caller had won. On insistence to provide the address, he gave it as Rajveer, Tata Motor Pvt Ltd, Agarwal Tower, Road No. 2, Ring Road, Industrial Area, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. When the pres men said they have relatives there, the caller cut off the call.

The cheating has been going on since long, in the form of postal messages announcing winning of rewards, email frauds, VPP frauds, etc. More and more people are helping the cheaters to make money easily. The authorities concerned including the postal department which handles the parcels and remits the money back, intelligence agencies, and the policemen are expected to keep a watch on such activities and nip the malpractices in the bud. None of this has been happening, and the wrongdoers appear to have been encouraged by the fact that no one is taking their acts seriously.