19-year-old engineering student K. Chetan from Hyderabad received a call from the Kaun Bangea Crorepati‘s production team. The caller spoke really good English. He told Chetan since he had the mobile number from one of the popular game show’s promoters, his number was randomly selected and Chetan now has the ultimate chance to appear in the 9th season of Kaun Banega Crorepati and play for the prize money. The shooting will begin from the next.
To become a part of the programme, Chetan was informed that he will have to deposit an entry fee of 15000 Rs which he happily did.
After the money was transferred when Chetan tried to get in touch with the caller to inform him about the transfer, he could not get through to him. Apparently, his number was added to the reject list by the caller. “No one called me. When I tried to call back the team member’s number, I found that my number was put on the reject list. When I called from another number, I realized that I had been cheated.”
Around 30 people have fallen for this scam. The fake production team who reportedly talks in good English and Hindi, either tells the victims that they have been selected for the show or have won a lottery. The police suspects the scammers are from North India.
“The callers convince the victims that they can win a huge amount from the programme since they have won the lottery. We suspect that the scamsters might be located in Gurgaon, Noida or some North Indian cities. They target residents in the south so that the cops cannot catch them easily,” said Central Crime Station DCP Ravi Varma.
Like the calls, there are many fake websites which direct the visitors to apply for the show by a paying an entry fee.
