South African Accused of Duping Indians into Fake Lottery Scam

Recently an online lottery scam has been uncovered by the Cyber Crime Investigations Cell, which was allegedly being run by a South African citizen. The Chandigarh (India) police is seeking the permission from the authorities to bring the matter upto the notice of the South African government.

In December 2008, the accused South African, Zomokuhle Raymond (34), reportedly dodged a local resident of Chandigarh of an amount of Rs 42,000 in an online lottery scam. The victim said that in June 2008, he received an e-mail asserting him as the winner of a prize money $4.5 Lakh that he had won in the UK National Lottery prize. The e-mail requested him to give all the required information so as to obtain the prize.

Few days later, the victim again received an e-mail that offered him three choices according to which he was asked to make a payment of $490 to receive the prize delivery within 72 hours, $540 within 48 hours, or $580 within 24 hours. The victim opted for the third option and gave the scanned copy of his passport as an identity proof. He was then asked to deposit delivery fees of nearly Rs 42,000 in the favor of Pratik Enterprises in ICICI bank.

After that the victim was regularly assured by Raymond over the telephone that he would soon be receiving the lottery prize. However, later in December 2008, the accused asked the victim to make another payment of Rs 68,000. This demand raised suspicions in the mind of victim and he informed the police.

In addition to this, in February 2009, Thiruneermalai (Tamil Nadu, India) based Krithika claimed that she gave away delivery charges of Rs 2 Lakh after getting a fake lottery e-mail from a Nigeria-based agent by means of which she was promised of a prize money of Rs 3 Crore.

Cybercrime police noted that dodging the unaware Internet users has emerged as a big cyber offence. The police also said that it is extremely challenging task to locate and trap such fraudsters as they are mainly concentrated abroad. According to security experts, strong efforts are required to abolish cybercrime and fraudsters should not be spared easily.

Related article: South Korea Becomes Infamous For Being World’s Fifth Spamme

» SPAMfighter News - 5/11/2009