These type of scams usually occurs for easy money mostly through the online platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp, etc.
Six months ago, A 40-year old man having ‘Rana’ as a surname from Pokhara got a message on whatsapp which offered him to be a chance to become a billionaire. The message said one named ‘Alex Clork Rana’ had died in Canada a few years ago, and there was no one to claim his $78 million lying in the Royal Bank of Canada which made the receiver to withdraw a huge sum of money in order to take the good fortune.
Rana, who owned a small business in Pokhara, was taken into confidence by the messenger, who further told him that he could easily give evidence to the bank of the Pokhara man’s link to Alex Clork Rana. Then the bank would then hand over the money to him as soon as the verification formalities were completed.
Initially, Rana was asked to send $1,500 in order to hire a lawyer for the purpose. Then, on various other pretexts, he was made to send large sums to 11 different individual bank accounts.
“When he lodged a complaint to us on March 7, he had already sent the money $78,000 [equivalent to around Rs 10.2 million] to the fraud from different bank accounts, all from Pokhara,” said Senior Superintendent of Police Pashupati Kumar Ray, also the spokesperson at Cyber Bureau, based in Bhotahity.
He also said that the case is currently under investigation at the bureau office.
“Stay away from this kind of fraudsters and report it immediately to the nearest police station if possible.”