A 77-year-old woman from Barkatpura in Hyderabad was allegedly defrauded of Rs 1.8 crore by cybercriminals who misused the name of billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani and posed as officials of the Reserve Bank of India to run a fake lottery scheme.
Scam unfolded over nine months
According to a complaint cited by The Times of India, the woman approached the city’s cyber crime police on Wednesday, stating that the fraud began in February when she received WhatsApp calls claiming she had won a Rs 2 crore online lottery.
After initially ignoring the calls, she was contacted again about two weeks later. This time, a man introduced himself as Mukesh Ambani and convinced her to share details of her Indian Overseas Bank account so the “prize money” could be transferred.
When the caller learned that internet banking was not enabled, he allegedly instructed her to visit the bank and activate it. Soon after, the fraudsters obtained her login credentials.
Forged documents and RBI impersonation
To build trust, the scammers shared a forged document carrying the woman’s photograph, her name and an image of the Prime Minister, falsely claiming it was linked to RBI approval for releasing the lottery amount.
Over time, the callers — now posing as RBI officials — persuaded her to enable net banking on her accounts with SBI, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank. They also collected copies of her Aadhaar and PAN cards, photographs of her debit cards, and allegedly sent her a link that gave them access to her mobile phone.
Money siphoned through small transactions
Between March 13 and December 8, money was siphoned from four of her bank accounts through 123 small transactions, which police believe was done to avoid triggering fraud alerts. The scammers also convinced her to prematurely break fixed deposits held jointly with her husband, falsely claiming RBI norms required matching balances before crediting the lottery amount.
The fraud came to light when she visited a bank branch and discovered only Rs 6,000 remained in her account.
Case registered, probe on
Police have registered a case under Sections 66-C and 66-D of the Information Technology Act, along with relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita related to cheating, impersonation and organised crime. An investigation is underway to trace the accused.