British High Commission saves Indian techie
By Rahul Kumar 

The British High Commission saved an IT professional from falling prey to a fraudulent GSM Promotion that promised to ‘reward’ him 450,000 pounds.  The sender of the SMS remained in touch with the WNS employee for about ten days through phone calls and emails using a fictitious name Garry Miller before finally promising to meet him outside the office of High Commission 

Not surprisingly, con artist Garry Miller did not turn up at the promised meeting. 

Garry had probably worked out that the IT professional had got to know of his plans to fleece gullible people.  However, not all are lucky enough like the WNS employee Sachin Bhatia,  and many have lost hundreds of thousands of rupees to the senders of false offers including lottery jackpots, overseas job offers etc before approaching the embassies of the concerned embassies of UK, USA, Canada and Australia.  The British High Commission has been proactive and had issued an advisory on false job offers and lottery frauds. 

Sachin, a resident of Gurgaon, and an IT consultant with WNS in DLF CyberCity received a SMS on his mobile phone giving him the pleasant news that he was short-listed for the prize money of 450,000 British pounds as part of a GSM Promo. A stunned Sachin soon worked out that this could be a ploy to trap him by making his part with his hard earned savings. But he decided to go ahead with the communication and made a sincere attempt to get 450,000 British pounds if these pounds came his way easily.  A series of exchanges of emails between the sender Garry Miller and Sachin ensued and finally the former asked him to deliver Rs. 60,000 as clearing charges in the form of a bank cheque to UK-based courier company Global Cellular Network. Once the Rs. 60,000 was paid, 450 thousand British pounds would be handed over.

After the demand of Rs. 60,000, Sachin approached the British High Commission where the officials advised him to stay away from such offers. The officials told him that he would never get a prize money offer if he had not entered into any contest and cautioned him from paying any money to anyone. Garry was so daring that he asked Sachin to meet him outside the British High commission at 5.00 pm on December 9 to convince him more about the prize. However, Garry did not turn up at the designated place fearing police action.  The British High Commission officials handed over Sachin an advisory that contained the following instructions which could prove useful for the potential preys to such offers.  

LOTTERY SCAMS
 
* All genuine UK lotteries are registered and have websites.
* If you did not buy a ticket, you cannot win a lottery.
* UK lotteries do not email winners or mention amounts won.
* You may get in touch with the Gambling Commission, who might be able to help you at Berkshire House, 168-173 High Holburn, London WC1V 7AA, Tel: +44 (0)20 7306 6203, Fax: +44 (0)20 7306 6266. Website: www.gamblingcommission.gov.ukUKTI 

Recruitment Scams
 
* Genuine UK companies are registered and can be checked on www.companieshouse.gov.uk
* Anyone approached about a 'UK' job should phone the 'company' in the UK - they usually have fake numbers or check their address on www.upmystreet.com.uk
* The British Government does not send unsolicited emails with job offers, either directly or through agents. Any such approach is likely to be from fraudsters. Government vacancies are advertised on our official websites, in the UK on www.careers-civilservice.gov.uk or in India on the British High Commission website http://ukinindia.fco.gov.uk 

Job offers and lottery frauds—Beware
 
* There are many attempted frauds at present, often by email, targeting Indian citizens, faking a UK connection.
* Most offers sent unsolicited by email are fraudulent.
* People who send share offers by email are often fraudsters.
* Anyone who asks for bank account details online or by phone are usually fraudsters.
* Any offer of cash - released in exchange for cash or bank account details - is likely to be fraudulent.