JOIN USFour persons, including two Africans, have been arrested for cheating a woman from Karnataka of Rs 8.24 lakh on the pretext of winning an online lucky draw of 5 lakh pounds.
The woman came to Delhi on being told to collect the money, but was handed powdered black papers in a box with code, said police.
S Mamatha hails from Karnataka’s Kolar district. In January, she had received a text message about the online lucky draw and was asked to send her details on Samsung 2015draw@gmail.com. Mamatha replied to the message, on which she received several e-mails mentioning that she would have to pay processing fee, cost of transfer charges and taxes. “Mamatha was provided details of many bank accounts on which she made a payment of Rs 4.24 lakh,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Prem Nath.On February 5, she received an international call informing that the money would be brought to Delhi from the UK. She was required to be in Delhi to receive the money and fulfil the formalities.
Mamatha informed that she would not be able to come to Delhi and requested them to come to Bangalore. She was, however, told that she must come Delhi.
“She came to Delhi on February 9 and was asked to meet a man named John at PVR Saket,” Prem Nath added. Mamatha was also made to pay Rs 4 lakh in cash as ‘box handling fees’ in which the prize money was claimed to have been kept.
On February 12, a box was given to Mamatha claiming that it contained 5 lakh pounds. John also gave a code number to open the box. She later opened the box with the code, but only found powdered black papers in bundles. On realising that she had been cheated, Mamatha approached Saket police station. Police have now arrested Cameroon national Nauriddin Zafri and Nigerian Efosa Danial Asamota along with Ugan Chaudhary and Sudesh Kumar, who hail from Uttar Pradesh. John was identified as Zafri.