Punjab

Scam: Beware of ‘you’ve won a car’ calls

People are told to pay Rs80,000 to get their ‘prize’ from a lucky draw.

May 29, 2011

LAHORE:

The Organised Crime Wing of the City Police has warned people to watch out for prank calls telling them that they have won a car or other valuable in a lucky draw and asking them to deposit some cash in advance to receive the prize.

SP (Organised Crime) Muhammad Umer Virk told APP on Sunday that several gangs were active in the country. He said these swindlers usually asked people to travel to Karachi to claim their prize.

Talking about their strategy, Virk said the first caller mostly said that the name of the person was selected in a lucky draw and read out the name and the address on the phone. He said another person posing as the manager of the car company would later call and tell people that they needed to deposit a copy of their national identity card, copies of the ID cards of two witnesses and Rs80,000 cash for insurance and cargo charges.

SP Virk said that people must never make any payments to people calling them in this manner.

Civil Lines investigation wing in charge Muhammad Raees Khan Lodhi said that most of the times such calls were fake but still if someone wanted to try out their luck they should tell them to deliver the car first and then receive the payment.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2011.

COMMENTS (5)

Arshad | 1 year ago | Reply Hi I would like to share about the scam call I received on 10-Jan-23 claiming they were calling from a state bank. They said the state bank has changed the ATM card policy and now consumers will require to apply for a new ATM card that will work with facial recognition technology so I will shortly receive another call from my Bank who will gather relevant information. A State bank call was received from 92 330 1538980. Later I received a call from 2121111331331 apon looking initially I thought its Meezan Bank but after paying attention to the country code I realized it was a fake call. The initial call knew that I have accounts in 2 different banks and they called their name correctly including mine. saying that they have internal information. They tried taking information while I was doing some research and luckily I haven t given them any information. I would expect appropriate action against such a scammer.

indian | 13 years ago | Reply People need to realise there is no free lunch. You have to earn everything the hard way. You can only lose, not win.

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True Pakistani Patriot | 13 years ago | Reply they mostly provide engine and chassis numbers as well, and ask to the freight and rent of about 20,000, and if once deposited then the proceed and ask for more money. It has happened with few of my fiends and I have upfront asked the to stay away from it.

ARF | 13 years ago | Reply they also give names of companies saying they are calling from there and that they have won a car in the company scheme.

Asad | 13 years ago | Reply I agree with Lodhi sb, but the officials didn't mention that callers do mention meeting places like on super highway in front of NFC factory and they also tell you that you don't have to bring any money with you. But once you reach their they kidnap you and your friends for ransum. or if you send money by any other means they will never send you any gift. I was also being called by one of them. But by the Grace of God and with the help of some good friends we cross question them and they just ran away.

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