You’ve won a KBC lottery? Hold on, it may be a scam!
Desperate scammers are now sending WhatsApp audio files to lure gullible people into lottery frauds. If you have received a WhatsApp call or a WhatsApp message stating it’s from Amitabh Bachchan’s office at Kaun Banega Crorepati or WhatsApp Office / Customer Care, Delhi claiming you have won a ₹25 lakh lottery (amount may vary from ₹2lakhs to ₹25crores), don’t get too excited as it is a conman trying to steal your hard-earned money.
This scam involves an audio recording that claims that you have won a lottery ticket worth ₹25lakhs on behalf of WhatsApp / KBC. In order to win the prize money, the victim will have to contact an SBI branch manager / senior supervisor. Interestingly, the scammer insists on calling the so-called branch manager only over WhatsApp. Along with the audio, some messages also carry pictures of Amitabh Bachchan, Mukesh Ambani and even Narendra Modi and claims that they have conducted this lucky draw.
What’s this SCAM?
This scam involves getting people to call the so-called bank branch manager. Once the victim is lured to call the scammer, he would be asked to deposit a registration fee or pay taxes for the lottery amount of Rs 25 lakh. Of course, if you pay the registration fee or tax for winning the lottery you will lose your money entirely. Alternatively, the scammers may even direct you to install an app, which will most likely be a remote desktop app, through which they may try to steal the baking details, UPI pin and other passwords from the victim’s phone.
After declaring that the victim has won the KBC contest, the real scam begins. The victim is then asked to deposit somewhere between Rs.8,000 and Rs.10,000 as tax money or processing fee to enable the KBC team to send the prize money of Rs.25 lakh. The processing fee is usually asked to be deposited in the form of bank drafts.
The scammers, in some cases, might not ask for the processing fee, instead, would ask about the victim’s bank account details on the pretext of directly transferring money to the victim’s account. The problem here that the victim might give away confidential online banking details which might be used to steal later.
Every year the popular KBC lottery scam makes a comeback around October when the popular ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ (KBC) quiz show, hosted by superstar Amitabh Bachchan, returns to TV. What’s surprising is that people are still falling for this easy scam. In most of the cases, irrespective of SBI branch manager / supervisor / branch in Mumbai or Delhi to be contacted, the person’s name would be Rana Pratap Singh!
KBC has no random lottery and it is a hoax. Every year scammers cash on the popularity of the show by sending messages or making call of people claiming that they have won the lottery. These scammers change the format of their modus-operandi slightly and start sending messages to random targets. Below are some of the tweets from Police Dept / Media regarding the same.
#UttarakhandPolice की STF ने KBC के नाम पर लॉटरी जीतने का लालच देकर ठगी करने वाले दो अभिुयक्तों को तमिलनाडु के तिरुवेनवेली से गिरफ्तार किया है। इनके द्वारा विभिन्न राज्यों में विगत पांच सालों के दौरान 10 से 12 करोड़ रुपये की ठगी की गयी है।#KBCFraud #BeAlert #BeSafe pic.twitter.com/XM7ERZ2FLk
— Uttarakhand Police (@uttarakhandcops) December 18, 2020
केबीसी के नाम पर व्हाट्सएप कॉल कर, हो रही ठगी से बचें।#cyber_sangi #cyberfraud #kbcfraud #Cybersangi_Tips #Cyberawareness @CG_Police @DurgDist @cgdial112 @Cyberdost pic.twitter.com/17Cu1MjsrX
— Durg Police (@PoliceDurg) January 9, 2021
An analysis of keyword – KBC lottery on Google Trends shows a steep search volume during the end of 2020 & now, which indicates a lot of people were targeted by the scammers and people were looking for ways to claim the lottery amount on the web.
The simple rule to avoid being a victim is DON’T RESPOND TO SUCH MESSAGES / CALLS or SHARE PERSONAL DETAILS
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