As dollar dreams of more and more residents turn sour, the authorities have finally woken up to the menace of online tricksters, who lure their prey by offering vast amounts of prize money or appointment letters for lucrative jobs. Newsline takes a look

Job Offers
Fraudsters, faking a UK connection, often target Indian citizens through emails. Most unsolicited offers are fraudulent, states the communication by the UK government to two Chandigarh residents who were conned by these fradulent mails.. Any individual or company, who ask for details of your bank account online or by phone, are usually tricksters. Any offer of cash being released in exchange of cash or bank account details is likely to be fraudulent.

Case in point
Two Chandigarh-based nurses, Kamal Raj and Amardeep Kaur, were offered jobs in London and were even issued appointment letters last year, which later turned out to be fake. But before being found out, the cheat duped both to the tune of 4,000 pounds each (approximately Rs 2.8 lakh). The two approached the UK High Commission and the trickster, identified as Angelique Blim, was finally nabbed in London in February She is currently facing trial in the Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Counsel for the complainants, Major Guneet Chaudhary (retd) said: "It is absolutely atrocious. In the hope of earning a better livelihood abroad, people have become gullible targets of such online tricksters."

Lottery Scams
Certain lottery scams have also come to light lately wherein people parted with lakhs of rupees in the hope of getting millions of pounds as the grand prize. In one such case registered last year, a city-based advocate ended up paying Rs 4 lakh.

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