Two Nigerians held for e-mail fraud

Preliminary investigation revealed that the duo are part of an international racket in which they send e-mails and messages on mobile phones to citizens in USA, UK, UAE and other nations, lure them to invest money in real estate and collect commission.

The duo sent an e-mail to Venkataramana Gowda of Nagarabhavi in Vijayanagar recently in the name of Mark Davison in which they stated that they were interested in investing in the Indian real estate market. They said that they wanted to invest in Gowda’s name as they were foreign nationals. They promised huge commission in return.

They called up Gowda and told him they would send their representative to Bangalore soon. On March 11 they asked him to meet their representative on M G Road. A heavily built person met Gowda on M G Road and told him there was a delay in getting the money due to tsunami in Japan. The representative told Gowda that his friends would come from Mumbai the next day with the money and suggested Gowda to collect the money from him at Hotel Leela Palace. He requested Gowda to bring Rs one lakh to meet courier expenses, police said.

Gowda grew suspicious and contacted Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari, who directed Joint Commissioner (Crime) of Police Alok Kumar to investigate into the matter. Kumar constituted a team to nab the suspects.

CCB ACP (Fraud and Misappropriation) S H Duggappa,  police inspector K Nagaraju and staff went to Leela Palace in mufti and were waiting for the suspects to come. Gowda met Dumbiri and Oni at the Hotel, when the police surrounded the suspects. Dumbiri tried to escape, but the police managed to arrest him and Oni.