Nigerian lottery frauds: AP and Telangana cops make arrests in New Delhi, West Bengal

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After analyzing technical data, call records etc, a police team raided in Sector 8, Bagdola in Dwarka, New Delhi and arrested two Nigerian nationals Osazee Mike Odion alias Philips alias Albert Thomson, and Ossai George Oduagu, and a Ugandan woman Rose Nakisiti alias Riya Gupta. “Osazee is the main accused who used to send the SMS’s and
emails to the innocent public through his mobile and fictitious e-mail IDs. Ossai assisted him by creating fake documents like lottery certificates, RBI certificates, etc. The Ugandan lady used to contact the victims through phone and introduce herself as officer from Reserve Bank of India and induce the victim to deposit the money in the bank accounts given by the two Nigerian men,’’ an official said.

All three accused have been brought to Hyderabad for further investigation.

In a separate case, the officials of Cyber Crime of Crime Central Station, Hyderabad, arrested an inter-state fraudster Sankar Bera, native of Midnapore, West Bengal, for aiding and providing his bank account details to Nigerian fraudsters and hackers who hack into the bank accounts particularly of NRIs and fraudulently transfer the amount through RTGS into the accounts of Indian accomplices. “For letting the Nigerians use their bank accounts to transfer funds from hacked NRI accounts, the Indian accomplices get a 20 per cent commission of the total amount transferred,’’ an official said.

In January this year, NRI, L Jagan Mohan Rao lodged a complaint alleging that some fraudsters hacked his bank account and transferred Rs 8 lakhs to an HDFC bank account at New Delhi and another 2 lakhs into ICICI bank Purulia, West Bengal. A case was registered and the Cyber Cell started the investigation.

“During the course of investigation, the Investigation Officer obtained the KYC and account statements of beneficiary account of ICICI bank, Purulia, West Bengal, belonging to accused Sankar Bera to whose account Rs 2 lakhs was credited through NEFT. Sankar Bera, 22, a native of West Midnapore, West Bengal, was tracked and arrested on Thursday morning. On questioning, he confessed that last year a Nigerian who identified himself as Obakc came in his contact through Yahoo Messenger chatting and they became close friends.

While chatting, Obakc asked him to provide his bank details so as to transfer funds after hacking the bank accounts of NRIs for which he would get 20 per cent as his commission. Tempted by this offer, Bera gave his ICICI bank details of Purulia Branch to Obakc on his mail ID. In the second week of December 2014, an amount of Rs 2 lakhs was transferred through NEFT into Bera’s ICICI bank account. Bera withdrew the amount and after taking his share of Rs 40,000, he sent the remaining amount to the Nigerian through Perfect Money.

“Police seized one laptop having chat history and mail correspondence between him and Obakc,’’ an official said.

Obakc, who is suspected to be operating from Mumbai, is absconding. CCS refused to confirm if he was also arrested on Thursday from Mumbai, based on information provided by Bera.