Calls and messages about fake awards and lottery prizes are troubling the public. Many people have received calls and messages from unknown numbers saying that the receiver has been selected for an award or lottery and bank details are required for depositing the money.
The frequency of these calls and SMSs have increased substantially of late with many people receiving several messages in a day.
While TRAI has issued guidelines on telemarketing calls, there seems to be no stopping these lottery messages and calls. The calls are mostly from a Pakistani Mobilink GSM number, (92-3026513451), while the messages are from places like New Delhi and Mumbai. One of the numbers sending messages is noticed to be an Aircel GSM number (7503572152), based at New Delhi.
One of the calls from the Pakistani number informed a receiver that he had won an award from Airtel worth Rs 25 lakh and that bank details must be given to one Akash Verma. A message from the New Delhi number said, “Funds worth 7 million dollars at Unity Bank ready for transfer to your account. Reply for full details. Confidential please.” Unity Bank is a bank in Nigeria. However, no complaint received on this by the city police.