Beware of bogus lottery SMS alerts

6 February 2013 07:08 am Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 7 Bookmark

CHATURANGA PRADEEP SAMARAWICKRAMA Follow

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The Police have warned the general public to beware of bogus lotteries or lottery scams that are operated through SMS services.

The Police in a statement said: “The general public is being made aware of a ruse adopted by certain private companies to dupe gullible individuals informing via SMS or by telephone calls that they had won valuable prizes and request them to deposit funds to a named account as initial costs and claim the winning prizes.

“The police had uncovered the modus operandi of this unscrupulous gang where when even companies especially Mobile Telephone service providers conduct lottery draws and award prizes to the winners. They intercept these calls informing the winners about their prizes, and posing off as representing the said companies induce the general public to deposit funds to a nominated account to cover the initial cost of handling charges.

“They use SMS or calls to contact individuals who get lured by the value of the prizes they had purported to have won.

“Therefore the general public is cautioned not to get caught in this type of frauds, and to bring to the notice of the closest police station in the event of a suspicion,” the police has asked.

Comments - 7

Most Wanted Wednesday, 06 February 2013 07:40 AM

Thanks but we haven't faced any up to now.

1 6

Goodmaen Wednesday, 06 February 2013 07:47 AM

Another conspiracy to control SMS news alert and free SMS systems! If its true, it's very simple to catch them as people know bank account and phone number!!

3 6

Goodmaen Wednesday, 06 February 2013 07:52 AM

Why can't you reveal the names and numbers of this cheaters?

1 8

Tom Wednesday, 06 February 2013 07:53 AM

Any difference between this operation and the political promises? We have been depositing large amounts!!!

4 5

EagleEye Wednesday, 06 February 2013 08:33 AM

Several Mobile Companies also mislead customers promising huge amounts of money as prices for reloads with higher amounts like Rs. 300 or Rs. 500. I have never heard any winner of such prices.

5 8

Mohan Wednesday, 06 February 2013 08:45 AM

little hard to to track them they use overseas SMS gateways and free paid Sims usually law enforcement don't care much about this kind of scam which is running for very long time (made in Africa :))

0 7

sudu seeya Wednesday, 06 February 2013 11:13 AM

I received two sms saying i've won thousands of dollars but i knew this was fake sms.

0 5

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