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

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

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.