Two Nigerians held for online lottery fraud of Rs 7.5 lakh

Two Nigerians were arrested by Andhra Pradesh police for allegedly duping a Chittoor resident of Rs 7.5 lakh in a case of online lottery fraud popularly known as Nigerian Fraud.
Chinna Bayaanagari Sankar Reddy of Chittoor district lodged a complaint with police stating that he was cheated by some unknown fraudsters in the name of winning an online lottery wherein the accused persons extracted an amount of Rs 7.5 lakh on the pretext of processing fee, currency conversion charges etc., police said today.
Based on the complaint, the Cyber Crime Police attached to CID here booked a case under relevant sections of IPC.

During the course of investigation, the case was analysed technically and based on credible information, a police team arrested and sent to judicial remand the prime accused Nigerian nationals Emmanuel Fearless Ogaba alias Frank Douglas, Johnson yesterday, a release from AP police said.
During interrogation, the duo voluntarily confessed that they along with fellow Nigerians committed this offence by sending bulk SMSes to several people stating that they have won lotteries/awards/prizes and asked them to send their details for claiming prize amount, police said.
Believing such SMSs as genuine, the complainant fell prey and he was asked to deposit amounts on various false pretexts such as processing fee, income tax, customs duty etc for delivering the prize amount and he deposited an amount approximately Rs 7.5 lakh into various bank accounts given by the fraudsters from where they siphoned off the money.

Police seized two laptops, two mobile phones, SIM Cards that were used in the commission of offence, the release added.