Two men in India have been arrested after allegedly tricking a doctor into buying what he believed to be an ‘Aladdin’s lamp’ – for more than £70,000.
Laeek Khan went to the police in Utter Pradesh after he purchased the lamp, soon realising it did not possess the magical powers he was sold.
He was led to believe the lamp housed a wish-granting genie, having ultimately been convinced when the two men managed to conjure up a supernatural figure known as a ‘jinn’ in front of him.
Amit Rai, a senior officer, told AFP: “The cheats had struck a deal for much more but the doctor had paid about 7m rupees [£72,000/$93,000].”
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Rai said the men were arrested on Thursday and were remanded in custody ahead of charges being filed, adding: “The wife of one of these men was also involved in the fraud. She is on the run.”
In his complaint, which was filed last Sunday, Khan explained how one of the men had pretended to be an occultist.
He made a genie appear from the lamp, but when Khan asked if he could touch the ‘jinn’ or take the lamp home, he was told he couldn’t as it might cause him harm.
The lamp was eventually sold to him, with promises of health, wealth and good fortune.
However, Khan later found out that there had actually been no genie – and that actually, it was just one of the fraudsters in disguise.
Rai said the two men have played the same trick with others before, having managed to make good money from doing it.
“The men have also cheated other families using the same modus operandi,” he said.
“The total amount of money involved runs into several million rupees.”
Last week a Pokémon first edition trading card haul thought to be worth $375,000 (£290,000) turned out to be fake.
Chris Camillo, a ‘social arbitrage investor’, was willing to part with a briefcase full of cash to get his hands on the 36 unopened ‘booster’ packs containing a total of 396 cards from Jake Greenbaum – a ‘blockchain entrepreneur’ who led a team of three sellers who had themselves bought the box from a third party.
The idea was for Greenbaum to be paid in cash and the cards would be sold again next year to raise money for charity, but alarm bells started to ring for Camillo when he opened the deck.
In footage filmed by the organisers of the ‘Dumb Money’ event, the collector opens the ‘treasured box’ during the live streamed exchange, one person says: “The colour’s different on that one and that one.”
Camillo then says bluntly: “That’s not a first edition card.”
Picking out a pack, he adds: “This is an unlimited pack, look, they’re open.”
Camillo then points out that it is a ‘resealed box’, with Greenbaum adding: “Money back on that.”
The two claimed the botched sale was not a set up, with Camillo telling The Guardian: “We took extreme precautions. I feel worse for the seller. This is going to shake up the Pokémon collector world.”
