A 43-year-old Nigeria national has been arrested from New Delhi for allegedly cheating a Pune-based woman of over Rs 16 lakh in online lottery fraud, police said today.
The accused, identified as Igwe Festus Abraham, has been remanded in police custody till May 31, they said.
The investigation was initiated by the Cyber cell of Pune Police after a woman registered a complaint of losing Rs 16.18 lakh to cheaters in January this year, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber and Economic offence Wing) Deepak Sakore said.
"The woman had received a mail in September 2015, informing her that she has won a lottery worth 500,000 GBP (Rs 4.92 crore). She provided her bank and other details as asked in the mail," the DCP said.
"The accused then called up the woman and asked her to deposit money from time to time under the pretext of various taxes and fees," Sakore said.
The accused met her at a hotel in Pune and gave a bag, telling her that it contained US dollars and even took out four notes from the bundle. He applied some chemical on the notes to show its genuineness.
"He told her that since the chemical was over, he will have to procure it from the UK, so that remaining notes can be analysed. He then left by handing over the suitcase to the woman," Sakore said.
The woman took the notes to the foreign exchange, where she came to know that the suitcase contained plain papers, the officer said, adding, "After realising that she has been duped, the woman lodged a police complaint."
"We successfully tracked the accused and arrested him in New Delhi," said Sunil Pawar, an Inspector with Cyber cell.
During investigation, police came to know that the accused has duped around 100 people across the country and got Rs 3 crore deposited to his various bank accounts.
