Balasore Police Took Nigerian into Custody for Online Lottery Scam

Balasore Police (Orissa, India) on April 24, 2010 took Nikki Douglas Sandey (25), a Nigerian citizen, into Police custody for his alleged involvement in an online scam discovered in January 2010. Nikki was arrested in Delhi (India).

As per the details revealed by the Balasore Police, they had arrested seven people, including three Nigerian on January 9, 2010. The arrest had exposed a multi-crore e-mail lottery scam ran by a group of Nigerians in three states - Maharastra, Orissa and West Bengal. The Police have claimed that it is a part of "black dollar magic" Nigerian scam.

Rajesh Kumar, Superintendent Police (Balasore), said that soon after the arrest of three Nigerians, they had dispatched a team of officials to Delhi and Mumbai, but the objective of the team failed as they could not arrest the remaining members of the group. However, the Delhi Police succeeded to arrest the leader of the gang that might help in finding some clue about the scam and people behind the scam, as reported by The Times of India on April 24, 2010.

According to the security experts, online lotteries have become quite popular and are fast turning into a multimillion dollar industry globally. Unfortunately, there is a dark side of it wherein an increasing number of lottery scams have defamed the whole business. Online scammers and frauds deceive countless number of people to steal their money. In fact, there are a large number of national lottery scams which either not booked or investigated.

Security experts state that online users should be careful of these scams and do not fall prey to them.

Some common tips that could help them from being ensnared by scammers - Don't get attracted towards money promised in unsolicited e-mail; Don't transfer any advance payment to get prize or lottery. Besides, in order to prevent such e-mail entering the inbox, install anti-spam filters and other internet security solutions.

Lastly, this is not the first of its kind case wherein Nigerian nationals have been arrested for running lottery scam. In March 2010, another 35 year old Nigerian arrested in Delhi for his alleged involvement in an online lottery scam worth million of Rupees.

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» SPAMfighter News - 5/7/2010