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Three Nigerians held for online lottery fraud

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Press Trust of India Hyderabad
Last Updated : Aug 05 2015 | 8:13 PM IST
Three Nigerian nationals have been arrested from New Delhi by Cyberabad police here in connection with an online lottery fraud case, police said today.
According to a complaint by a woman from Malkajgiri area, the victim received an SMS in the first week of June, stating that she had won Rs 3.6 crore of Samsung Lottery. Thereafter, she also received e-mails, in which she was asked to pay some amount for "smooth transfer" of lottery amount into her bank account.
Accordingly, the woman deposited Rs 15.5 lakh in different bank accounts hoping that she would get the lottery amount. However, as the fraudsters kept asking her to deposit more money, she grew suspicious and approached the Cyber Crime Police Station, police said.
They said a case was booked and investigation was launched into the case. During the probe, a team of Cyber Crime police under Cyberabad Commissonerate arrested the three Nigerians-- Odidi Onoriode Walsh, Nkemachor Anthony and Wzenwaobasi Gospel Ikenna from New Delhi.
"Five laptops, 10 mobile phones, eight Internet data cards, 53 active SIM cards and cash of Rs 1.50 lakh were also seized from their possession," a release from Cyberabad Police said.
All the accused were brought to Hyderabad on transit warrant issued by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Tis Hazari Court in New Delhi, it said.

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After the analysis of the laptops and mobiles, it came to light that the trio had contacted as many as 99,584 persons through SMS and e-mails, informing them that they had won the lottery. Some recipients of the messages fell prey and got cheated.
"Efforts are being made to contact the victims on the basis of the mobile numbers and e-mails obtained from the laptops to render justice to them," police said.
One of the accused- Odidi Onuriode Walsh, who was a police officer in Nigeria, had quit the force and came to India.
The Nigerian police will be contacted to get further details about the accused, police said, adding, all the accused had landed in India on business visa in 2013 that was valid for two months only.
"However, they created fake Indian visas of multiple entries and pasted on their passports. All the accused are produced before a local court and remanded to judicial custody," the release added.

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First Published: Aug 05 2015 | 8:13 PM IST

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