Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MS)

Mangaluru, Nov 4: Believing a fake email message proved costly to Monti, a resident of Bajpe, who lost Rs 32 lac.

The victim received an email on her mobile on June 18, which said that she has won USD 4,85,000 as third prize in a contest from a company called Apple. Monti was asked to pay the customs duty to claim the said amount.

The lady sent a reply to the email on June 19 and wrote that she is prepared to pay the customs tax. Accordingly, she deposited Rs 10,500 to the account of certain Gupta on June 21. A second mail asking to send Rs 49,500 was received by her and Monti sent that amount again to the mentioned account.

In addition, luring Monti on the pretext of claiming the prize, the culprits swindled an amount of Rs 32,03,638 citing charges for income tax, anti-terrorist certificate, affidavit form, opening of bank account etc.

When Monti did not receive any prize, she got suspicious and reported the incident to the cyber crime police station.