Hyderabad: An attempt to cheat people through an online fraudulent lottery scheme has landed ten Nigerians behind bars.
Andhra Pradesh’s Crime Investigation Department arrested the ten on charges of defrauding a person from Nizamabad district of Rs2.7 million (Dh181,700). One of the accused had approached their victim through SMS informing him that he had won an international lottery and extracted a large amount of money on the pretext of processing charges and customs duty to claim the prize amount. The modus operandi has come to be known as the Nigerian Lottery.
T. Krishna Prasad, additional director-general of the CID, said that the accused made their victim deposit the amount in different bank accounts opened with fictitious documents.
The CID booked a case under the Information Technology Act and various sections of Indian penal code. They arrested the gang at Chandhansar Gaon in Thane district, Maharashtra, and brought them to Hyderabad for questioning.
On interrogation one of the accused confessed that he and the other suspects had been involved in this type of fraud for a long time, police said.
At the instance of the accused laptops, mobile phones, internet data cards and other incriminating documents used to commit the offences were seized in the presence of mediators and sent to judicial remand.
