The police in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad have cracked a fraudulent mobile phone lottery scam which has its roots in the Kingdom.

Police in Hyderabad announced on Friday that it busted a gang that was involved in the mobile phone lottery scam, cheating people by calling them and stating they had won a lottery. They duped the victims asking for money in advance to pay various taxes on the lottery amount, and the amount collected from them was then sent to the gang’s kingpins, all expatriates living in Saudi Arabia, Indian media quoted police as saying.

They have so far arrested three people, including the son of a Saudi-based Indian expatriate, while four others are still at large, reports said.

According to police, Shahensha, Mohammed Aftab and Sujeet were arrested and police seized 1.5 million rupees, four cell phones, 70 debit cards, fake voter ID cards and 40 rounds of ammunition. Police said the main operators are Mohammed Javed, Lali and Mohammed Shakeel — all of them hailing from Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh and residing in Saudi Arabia.

Police claimed that Aftab and Sujeet withdrew the ill-gotten money through ATMs and sent it to Saudi Arabia through travelers on instructions of Shakeel, Lali and Javed. Once they receive the money, it is passed on to another South Asian gang and it ultimately reaches that country. All the people involved receive commissions in the process, the reports quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police Pala Raju said. The gang has also been charged with money-laundering.

In the Kingdom, several expatriates receive calls from fraudsters posing as Saudi Telecom Company employees and claiming that they had won lotteries ranging from SR100,000 to SR 200,000. Potential victims are asked to follow some procedure for them to receive the prize money.

If a person is alert, these fraudsters disconnect the call, but if they believe that someone is gullible, they engage him in long conversations without giving the potential victim a chance to think until they extract the money in the form of recharging a phone in the Kingdom.

Major telecom companies have been warning residents about such scams for the past three years, but these SIM card scammers continue to operate and dupe expatriates.

Attas Sumit, a Yemeni expatriate, told Arab News that he received a call a few days ago with the caller saying that he had won a lottery. “The caller told me I had won a lottery and even told me that my SIM card serial number is 8996601. He asked me to check this out.”

“Others then told me that all SIM card serial numbers belonging to a leading telecommunication company in the Kingdom start with 8996601,” he added.

Abdul Rahman Maisary, another Yemeni expat, said: “I received a call stating that I had won SR50,000. I was told to recharge a particular number with SR1,500. I checked with my friends who said that it is a fraud.”

Saudi Telecom Company (STC) reminds its customers to beware of unsolicited suspicious calls. The STC sends SMS in this regard to customers in the wake of increasing fraudulent activities.