Nigerian behind online lottery scam - Times Of India Chennai; Date:2008 May 05

Nigerian behind online lottery scam

TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Chennai: The city police have traced a bogus online lottery scam to a Nigerian national in a prison in Andheri in Mumbai and have gone to that city to execute an arrest warrant against Festos Vazugo Albaika (28). The city police were acting on a complaint from Anand (38), a resident of Perambur, who received an email sometime ago saying he had won an online lottery and asking him to claim the prize money within a certain time. Tempted by the claim, Anand responded to the mail and received another asking him for money as service charges. He remitted Rs 75,000 into a bank account. However, he grew suspicious when he got a mail stating that there was a problem in transferring the prize money and asking for more money to help release it. Anand approached the city police commissioner seeking action against the suspected online lottery fraud.Police said they had traced Albaika’s bank account in Mumbai as the recipient account for Anand’s money. Albaika had carried out similar transactions from other unsuspecting citizens in the past.Mumbai police had also arrested two of his associates. The police have recovered 23 debit cards, two laptops, a pen drive and 21 chequebooks from Albaika’s house