Hyderabad: Panjagutta police have registered a criminal case against two persons for using their social media handles to promote lottery schemes. The case was registered based on a complaint lodged by actor Karate Kalyani.
In her complaint, Kalyani stated that she came across several lottery schemes being promoted as ‘lucky draws’ on different social media handles. The accused allegedly collected money through UPI by luring victims with a promise of gifts through these lottery schemes.She cited a few instances in which victims lost money and further alleged that the accused shot promotional videos at a popular temple in Andhra Pradesh to gain the confidence of victims.
The accused reportedly asked victims to pay money under the pretext of registration.To attract victims, the promoters posted advertisements promising gifts such as a car, a TV, a bike, refrigerators and others. When users clicked on these advertisements, they were redirected to different websites. The complainant suspected some of these links led to the download of APK files.Police named two influencers as accused and booked them for cheating, besides violation of the Information Technology Act and the TG Lotteries Act. Meanwhile, Hyderabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar tweeted that the Prize Chits and Money Circulation (Banning) Act would be invoked against those influencers who attract people in the name of lucky draws. Police also shared several videos on social media, terming them as fraudulent.
In those videos, influencers were allegedly seen luring people with lucky draw schemes.In another tweet, police said: “Taking advantage of public celebrations during Sankranti and Republic Day, cyber criminals are coming up with new tricks to cheat people. Currently, several fake links are widely circulating on WhatsApp with messages such as ‘PhonePe Republic Day Mega Gift’ and ‘Sankranti Gift’ cyber fraudsters are luring users by claiming that clicking these links will get them Rs 5,000 for free.
