Lottery fraud: businessman loses Rs 24 lakh

A businessman was duped of over Rs 24 lakh by men who told him that he had won Rs 1.07 crore in an online lottery. He got an email in May this year asking him to call a number to claim his prize. Nagaraju M., a resident of Basaveshwara Nagar in Hosakote, called up the number. He spoke to Sanjay Kumar and Sonia Sharma, who claimed to be representatives of Goodluck Company, which was facilitating the lottery prize. The duo convinced Nagaraju to transfer Rs 24,27,200 to over 12 bank accounts citing processing fee, income tax dues and clearance fee, before asking him to wait till the money is transferred to his account. After waiting till July, Nagaraju called the number again and found that the phone was switched off.