Conmen dangle ‘$1.5-cr jackpot’, dupe man of Rs 1.5L

Posing as executives of a foreign company, three conmen duped a man of Rs 1.56 lakh after telling him he had won a jackpot of $1.5 crore.

The victim, Rathankar Joshi, a resident of Yelahanka, filed a complaint on Sunday.

In the complaint, Joshi said he received a call a few days ago from a person, identifying himself as Steven. Steven informed Joshi that he had won a jackpot of $1.5 crore and asked him for his bank credentials to transfer the money.

An excited Joshi shared his bank details. A few hours later, Steven called him, informing that Joshi needs to pay Rs 68,000 as a processing fee and gave him his account number. Joshi transferred the money accordingly. The following day, Steven called him again, asking for Rs 88,000 towards taxes, saying they were foreign funds. Steven told Joshi his colleague would come to Bengaluru and deliver the amount. Joshi transferred the amount and waited for a response from the company's representative.

On August 9, a person identifying himself as John called Joshi and told him his associate Abraham was waiting at Majestic with the cash. Joshi rushed to the spot and met Abraham, who handed over a briefcase, saying it contained $1.5 crore.

He asked Joshi to open the briefcase at home since the currency was laced with a chemical for security reasons. Joshi thanked Abraham and returned home with the suitcase only to find paper bundles inside.

Realising he had been duped, Joshi rushed to the Yelahanka New Town police station with the briefcase and filed a complaint with the mobile numbers of Steven and Abraham. The police have registered a case and are trying to trace them through their call detail records.