Nigerians seem to be adept at one thing, viz, keeping on improving in their techniques of cheating. This is evident from yet another breakthrough made by the Chennai Cyber Crime Police by identifying a Nigerian reported to be involved in an on line Lottery Fraud.
A businessman from a uburb of Chenni had lodged a complaint with the Police Commissioner that he had received an email from U.K. that he had won a lottery of 5,00,000 Pounds. In order to claim this he was asked to pay in advance a certain sum by way of taxes which amounted to Rs.1.5 Lakh. This was promptly paid by the businessman to a bank account mentioned in the email and after this he did not receive any response from the so called Lottery running authorities. Peeved by this, he lodged the said complaint.
The Police initially were clueless as they could not identify the IP address of the Phisher;but, their tracking of the bank account to Mumbai paid the requisite dividend as they were able to close in the real culprit operating through an Indian with a clandestine account. The Indian account holder confessed that he had operated the account on behalf of a Nigerian, by name Festos (a) Murphy who was nabbed by the Mumbai Police and sent to jail. The Indian was operating this account for paltry commission paid by the Nigerian. The Police had also seized a number of credit and debit cards besides a Laptop from the Nigerian which raised the suspicion in them about his involvement in a number of similar crimes. He is expected to be brought to Chennai for further questioning.
Terming this as a New Nigerian Scam, the Additional Commissioner of Police, Mr.S.R.Jangidd had mentioned a number of similar complaints have been received by them and with this breakthrough, they may be able to nab the culprits but appealed to the public not to fall prey to such lucrative fraudulent offers.
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