Warning issued over ‘fake draw win’ scam

A warning has been issued against falling prey to a scam, which promises unsuspecting victims thousands of dinars in the guise of a lottery draw. Names of prominent remittance and exchange houses, banks, telecom companies are being used for the fraudulent act that is being surfaced across the Kingdom.   Sources said the scam is being conducted by overseas fraudsters who use social media apps and VOIP services. Apparently, the scammers ring up people in the Kingdom through social media apps in their attempt to cheat them.

A senior official from a prominent remittance and exchange house, who chose to remain anonymous, said that his establishment’s name has been used by scammers. “Spam calls are being circulated on social media apps Viber and WhatsApp using our official number. “The scammers would tell the customers that they won BD10,000 from us. “This is completely fake, we do not have accounts on Viber or WhatsApp.

“We do not use social media apps to request bank details,” the official said. “We have started noticing this in the past two weeks, but it may have started even before that. “They use our logo, and campaign images for their scam. They call customers informing that they won BD10,000 or even BD20,000. “They would tell the customers that they need to first pay BD150 as charges and then they would send over the prize money.”

Scammers have also been targeting telecom customers using the name of telecom companies. A resident who got a call from such a scammer said that BD20,000 cash prize was offered to him. “The person on the line asked me to tell him the number written on the back of my SIM card to verify whether I was the winner of BD20,000. I did not give the number as I felt it was not legit. “He was calling via WhatsApp and it did not make sense to me as to why my telecom service provider would need to call me via WhatsApp.”