Fraudsters find a new way to mint money

[Naveed Yaseen]

by Myra Imran
With the public becoming wary of cheats who use different methods to deprive people of their money, the newest trap laid out, especially targeting women, has now come to light.

The latest trap involves the woman receiving the call being told that she has won a car. The company offering this mouthwatering prize is almost always based in Karachi.

The ‘lucky’ winner is informed that either she would have to come to Karachi to claim the prize or if she wanted, the vehicle could be shipped to Islamabad. Obviously, the latter option would seem attractive.

Noreen Farooq almost got trapped but fortunately sensed foul play just in time. She had filled up a coupon at one of the stores where she does her shopping.

One morning she received a call from a man who introduced himself as Rana Zulfiqar-ur-Rehman. He congratulated her on winning a car.

“He said that he was calling from Rehman Foods in Karachi and gave me the cell number of his General Manager Syed Riaz Gilani,” she told ‘The News’.

Initially excited, Noreen contacted the GM who again greeted her warmly and asked how she wanted to collect her prize. “When I chose the shipping option, he asked me to contact him after 9:30 p.m.,” she said.

On phoning him up that evening, she was given another cell number of a person posing to be the company manager running the transport company.

“The details that the GM gave me seemed complete with all the file and booking numbers, address of the transport guy and other details,” she said.

She was also guided on the documents required to be submitted, included a copy of her national identity card, passport size pictures along with a stamp paper mentioning that she had received the prize.

Noreen said that she became suspicious because everything was being done fairly quickly. “When I contacted the transport man he again congratulated me saying that I was lucky to have won this prize without spending anything.”

The shipping guy gave her details of the money she would have to pay for transportation of the vehicle from Karachi to Islamabad. He said that half the amount, in this instance Rs6,000, would have to be paid in advance for the car to begin its journey.

“He gave me an account number and insisted that I deposit Rs6,000,” she said pointing out that her family smelt a rat and she stopped communicating with them.

Although Noreen escaped from what was a perfect plot, who knows how many gullible people would have been robbed of their money. “They did many things which were indicative of their real identity yet I ignored all those, excited as I was,” she admitted.

Sharing some clues to detect this fraud, she said that the contacts given to her were all mobile numbers.

“They said that their company had no sub-office in the capital and all of them appeared to be in a big hurry and wanted me to decide quickly,” she said adding that they warned her that she might lose the chance if she delayed. Good that she did lose this one!

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=144650