Ten Nigerians were arrested from Maharashtra’s Thane by CID sleuths for operating a fake lottery racket, thus siphoning off crores from unsuspecting netizens.
Laptops, mobile phones, internet data cards and several documents were seized from them, CID Additional DGP T. Krishna Prasad said in a statement.
A special team that was investigating into the complaint of a Nizamabad resident, who was duped of Rs. 27 lakh online analysed the email and phone call records of the gang and learnt that they were operating from Vasai Taluk of Thane.
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The CID team arrived at the place and caught the Nigerians, who had been randomly sending emails to thousands of persons, saying they had won an international lottery prize.
The victims were asked to deposit money in specified bank accounts so that the lottery prize money could be passed onto them. The fraudsters would lead the victims into believe that paying money was crucial to collecting the lottery prize.
The victims go on depositing money in the bank accounts, only to realise after some time that they were taken for a ride. During investigation, it was found that all bank accounts, through which the gang received money, were created by presenting fake documents.
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The arrested foreigners were brought to Hyderabad and produced before a local court here. Police said they would move court for police custody of the foreigners.