Indian doctor falls for scam and buys Aladdin-style lamp for £72,000

AN Indian doctor is duped by two fraudsters as he falls for a ‘magical’ scam and buys an Aladdin-style lamp for £72,000.

The two conmen managed to conjure up a genie from the lamp in order to get the doctor to part ways with 7,000,000 rupees (£71,842).

After realising the expensive Aladdin-style lamp did not have the magical powers the men had ‘advertised’, Laeek Khan approached police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

According to senior office Amit Rai: “The cheats had struck a deal for much more but the doctor had paid about seven million rupees (£71,842)”

Local media reported that Khan said one of the men pretended to be an occultist and made a ‘jinn’ – a supernatural figure – appear from the lamp but when Khan asked if he could touch the genie or take the lamp home, they refused.

The tricksters said that it might cause him harm before they eventually sold the lamp to him – promising it would bring health, wealth and good fortune!

The Indian doctor later realised the ‘genie’ was actually just one of the men in disguise as he embarrassingly fell for the scam to buy the Aladdin-style lamp for £72,000.

‘The men have also cheated other families using the same modus operandi. The total amount of money involved runs into several million rupees,’ Rai said.

He confirmed that the men had been arrested and were remanded in custody ahead of charges being filed, although, “The wife of one of these men was also involved in the fraud [and] is on the run,’ Rai concluded.