[Resolved]  Airtel / SBI — Fraudulent telephone call (lottery scam)

Address:

Bangalore, Karnataka

Hi Consumer Complaints Forum,

I want to report an ISD telephone call based fraud scam, which I experienced today. I received a missed call from [protected] on 3/1/2011 at 12:08 PM. When I called back at 12:09 PM, a lady (she said her name was Priya) said she was calling from Airtel Mumbai and told me that I have won a lottery of Rs 10 lakhs. I didn't believe in such lottery scams and suspected both the number and her accent (which was distinctly not from Mumbai, but was more like Punjabi) so I kept her engaged and asked more details.

When I asked her if she was indeed calling me from Airtel Mumbai, then why is her number starting with +92 which is Pakistan's ISD code, she explained that it is an internet based call that's why it didn't reflect the regular number. I laughed at her poor explanation so she asked me if I was interested in collecting the money. She asked me to call Branch Manager of SBI Mumbai (some Mr. Surender Pal Singh) at another number [protected]. Needless to say, of course I did not bother to waste any further efforts.

I request all readers to be careful of such callers and not to respond to such calls. And NEVER give out your bank account related information on phone, sms, email, or any other means. Such scams are called as blended phishing attacks, basically intended to fool the recipient into giving out their banking / financial information. The one in which fraudsters utilize telephone networks to cause frauds (such as this one) are specifically known as 'Vishing', more details can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishing

Regards, Ashish Chandra Mishra