Woman gets Duped by fake ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ Caller

A woman from Whitefield, Bengaluru, was conned out of Rs. 73,000 (£820) after she was duped by a caller claiming to be from Kaun Banega Crorepati.

Parbati Soere, aged 33, is a beautician who works at a salon. She went to the police to file a complaint after realising she had been scammed.

She told officers that she received a call from a man named Bijay Kumar. He claimed to be a representative of the popular game show Kaun Banega Crorepati.

Kumar had told her that her phone number had been selected from a lucky draw and that she had won a cash prize of Rs. 25 Lakh (£28,200).

Parbati believed that her life was going to change for the better.

Kumar then gave the woman the contact details of a man named Rana Pratap Singh and told her to contact him. He said that he would be able to help her.

When Parbati contacted Singh, he told that she would have to pay a registration fee of Rs. 50,000 (£560) before receiving her prize money.

Singh sent her an account number and Parbati immediately transferred the money.

On September 2, 2019, Singh contacted the woman and asked her to transfer a further Rs. 23,000 (£260).

Parbati had transferred a total of Rs. 73,000 and was told that she would receive a call confirming that her prize money had been deposited into her account.

After five days of waiting and seeing that the money was not in her account, Parbati realised it had been a scam.

She said: “The money which I lost was from my savings. I have a family to look after.

“The person who called me spoke very nicely and I believed him. Bijay Kumar told me that he was from Delhi while Rana Pratap Singh said he was from Kolkata.

“They said that Jio had a tie-up with them and they select a lucky number through a lucky draw and reward the user with a cash prize.

“I lost all my money because I was stupid to believe them. I hope I get my money back with the help of police officials.”

After explaining her ordeal to the police, a case was registered.

One police officer explained to the Bangalore Mirror: “The accused have not yet been identified. We are trying to trace them through bank details and soon we will take them into custody.

“I request people not to fall for fake calls like this. They should ignore or alert officials if they receive fake calls repeatedly.”

An FIR was registered under section 420 (punishment for cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.