The e-mail would announce that s/he had won a huge sum of money. S/he would only need to part with some money, thousands when compared to the lakhs promised in the lottery prize. The gullible would lap it up, and transfer the amount to the sender, in the hope of the promised windfall. This is how fraudsters from Nigeria lured their victims, and operated their racket.

Now that police have repeatedly alerted internet users of the crime, asking them not to respond to emails from unidentified persons offering big money, instances of such frauds have dipped a bit.

Apparently, even the tricksters have realised this, and are trying out new inducements online to take people for a ride. They are now attaching to the lottery prizes the names of popular brands such as Coca Cola, BBC, ICICI – anything that is a brand of repute and easily recognised by a discerning person.

The baits have also changed. The fresh lures are millions of unclaimed US dollars in bank accounts, letters from the Reserve Bank of India to transfer money from abroad, or unclaimed sums of money left in the bank accounts of a foreign businessman.

In some instances, they use false emblems of the RBI or photographs of the RBI Governor to lead the email recipients to conclude that their claims are genuine. “They are sending these mails to lakhs of people in one go. Even if one per cent of one lakh recipients respond, it would translate to 1,000 persons,” police say. If each of them sends Rs.10,000 hoping to get lakhs in return, the frauds-ters would bag an easy Rs.1 crore. The recent arrest of two foreigners and seizure of laptops containing lakhs of email ids with drafts congratulating recipients of being selected for the prize money confirmed that the tricksters continue to strike.

Stop the drunk in their tracks

Traffic police conduct drink-driving checks across the city. Those caught driving under the influence of alcohol are produced before the court and a few awarded jail-terms ranging from a day to a month.

Pointing to statistics, police claim the exercise has really paid off, and helped bring down accidents.

However, people feel a lot more needs to be done to curb the practice of drink-driving, especially between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. in the interior areas of the city. The checks begin only at 10 p.m., but what of drivers who consume alcohol from the permit rooms of neighbourhood liquor shops that shut prior to that?

There have been many instances of people consuming liquor at wine shops and driving rashly before closure time at Mangalhat, Begum Bazaar, Jummerath Bazaar, Puranapul and other areas of old city. “Conducting drink-driving checks in collaboration with law and order police on interior roads and neighbourhoods will be more fruitful,” some citizens say.

The Excise Department issues permission for permit rooms to liquor shops after collecting an annual license fee of Rs.2 lakh from them. And given that most liquor shops in the city pay the sum, keeping watch near wine shops and nabbing inebriated drivers becomes all the more necessary.

Source: TH