Online lottery scam busted, four Nigerians, woman held

A joint team of Gurgaon and Odisha Police on Saturday busted an inter-state lottery scam with the arrest of four Nigerian men and a woman from Uganda. HT reports.

A joint team of Gurgaon and Odisha Police on Saturday busted an inter-state lottery scam with the arrest of four Nigerian men and a woman from Uganda.

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The accused were sent to three days in police remand by a local court on Saturday.

The police arrested the five from a rented accommodation in Sector 52 on Friday.

As many as 20 mobile SIM cards, four laptops, 15 mobile phones and Rs 2 lakh were recovered from their possession.

Though the accused had duped many people of lakhs , it was a fraud committed in Odisha that finally landed them in the net.

The gang targeted a small vendor in the state’s Bargarda district by sending him an e-mail saying that he had won Rs 1.6 crore in a lottery conducted by a reputed UK multinational firm.

They also wrote that he needs to deposit a certain amount to avail the winning amount.

“They used the name of a company. They repeatedly sent him e-mails and SMSes offering a huge amount. The victim finally gave into the temptation and deposited Rs 5,28,000 in seven different accounts given by them,” said Vishwapati Panda, an inspector with Odisha police.

The gang told him that he would have to come to Delhi in June to collect his winning amount and in the meantime demanded more money from him. The victim again deposited some amount but he soon became suspicious and filed a police case.

“The accused were living in Gurgaon from quite some time. Four of them were living illegally as their visas had expired. We recovered various documents related to government agencies and banks from their possession,” said Panda.

The accused used to create fictitious documents in the name of prestigious companies as a means to win the confidence of unsuspecting people and then dupe them.