Three Nigerians Arrested In India for Lottery Fraud

Three Nigerians and an Indian national have been arrested on charges of
running a fake lottery racket in India, the Times of India has reported.
According to the newspaper, the accused were arrested on allegations that
defraud many people by informing them they had won lottery worth five crore
pound.

The newspaper quoted the Police as indicating that the arrest of the accused
followed complaints by one Arvind Kumar, who alleged that he had been
cheated to the tune of Rs 4.70 lakh by a person, who had promised him an
online lottery of five crore pound via SMS and e-mail.

The Nigerian accuseds were identified as John (34), Davies Inemhonlan (31),
Sunday Mokobi (38) and Sameer Ahmed, an Indian.

According to the newspaper, John, a diploma holder in estate management
arrived in India in 2005 and has been exporting garment from the country to
Nigeria. He has been staying illegally in India. Meanwhile, Inemhonlan is a
graphic designer while Mokobi holds a degree in mass communication.

Ahmad, a resident of Seelampur, met John in 2010 through a common friend,
said cops. He allegedly opened bank accounts and facilitated the Nigerian
gang in using the accounts to get money from their victims. According to
police, he got 10 per cent of the money transferred into the accounts.

“The victims belong to various parts of the country and are mostly well-off
and educated. The scam has a distinct Metro signature. The worst affected
areas were Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, parts of Uttar
Pradesh and Kerala. The lure of large sums of lucre led them to deposit
their hard earned cash into bank account numbers provided to them by the
cheats,” Times of India quoted Ashok Chand, deputy commissioner of police
(crime) as saying.

“The location of the sender is difficult to find in such spoofed e-mails.
Once hooked the victim is asked to send sensitive information to a free
e-mail account generated by the gang. At the same time a cleverly drafted
e-mail advised victims to keep the matter secret till the amount was
received by them. The gang then notified the victim through e-mail that
releasing the funds would require a small fee to cover transfer fees,
insurance, registration, RBI endorsement fees, income tax procedures etc,”
said DCP Chand.

The victims were contacted both on the mobile phone through SMS and the
internet using spam mails, said cops.

“They would win the confidence of the victim. They informed them they had
opened an account with Reserve Bank of India in which they had transferred
the money won by the victim and if the victim intended to verify this fact
they provided him an URL (uniform record locator) along with the account
number and pin number,” the newspaper said quoting another senior police
officer.