The pigeon that was used to deliver the fake scratch cards
Pigeons, in ancient times, were used to deliver important messages to people in far off places. But fraudsters in China are now using the trusty pigeon for something else.
Police in China's Jiangsu province were shocked to find messenger pigeons being used to lure people into fake lottery draws. Last week, a woman, on her way to work, spotted a pigeon with a scratch card tied to its leg. Excited, she immediately scratched the card hoping to win something. She did win. It was a cash prize of 280,000 Yuan (approximately $41,600). But there was a catch. When the woman called the lottery company to claim the prize money, she was asked to pay 50,000 Yuan as 'tax'.
Sensing something fishy, she immediately got in touch with the police who told her it was a fraudulent scheme and there was no prize money.
"Young people these days are more suspicious. She didn't send any money, but chose to call the police instead. But, older people consider pigeons as loyal, so they could be more easily cheated," said a police official.
Police are now investigating if there have been more such cases. The pigeon, however, was set free.
Police in China's Jiangsu province were shocked to find messenger pigeons being used to lure people into fake lottery draws. Last week, a woman, on her way to work, spotted a pigeon with a scratch card tied to its leg. Excited, she immediately scratched the card hoping to win something. She did win. It was a cash prize of 280,000 Yuan (approximately $41,600). But there was a catch. When the woman called the lottery company to claim the prize money, she was asked to pay 50,000 Yuan as 'tax'.
Sensing something fishy, she immediately got in touch with the police who told her it was a fraudulent scheme and there was no prize money.
"Young people these days are more suspicious. She didn't send any money, but chose to call the police instead. But, older people consider pigeons as loyal, so they could be more easily cheated," said a police official.
Police are now investigating if there have been more such cases. The pigeon, however, was set free.
