BLACK DOLLAR SCAM: NIGERIAN FRAUDSTER HELD IN INDIA

Frido Ambrose and two other scamsters defrauded people of lakhs of rupees in an online lottery fraud by delivering packets of black paper instead of currency notes

The Nigerian national, Frido Ambrose (35), who duped a city woman of Rs.2.32 lakh (N651,915) in a ‘black dollar scam’ and arrested by the City Police on Wednesday, was presented before the media on Thursday.

Giving details to the media, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) P. Viswa Prasad said Ambrose and two other scamsters had defrauded people of lakhs of rupees (hundreds thousands of rupees) by making them believe that they had won a lottery organised by Microsoft/RBI and then delivering packets of black paper instead of currency notes.

Rupavathi, a post-graduate student, received an e-mail on May 24 saying that she had won an annual prize of 1 million pounds (252,923,492.35 NGN). She paid Rs.21,000 (N59,010) into an SBI account as directed by the fraudsters.

Within hours, she received another mail from the ‘RBI’ saying that she was the lucky winner of 1 million pounds and directed her to pay Rs.2.31 lakh (N651,915) towards the ‘cost of transfer of the prize money’.

Mr. Viswa Prasad said that the girl informed her parents and they sold their coconut grove and deposited Rs.2.31 lakh (N651,915) in instalments in different accounts as sought by the fraudsters. Rupavathi, however, became suspicious after the accused wanted her address to deliver the prize money.

She invited the fraudster to Visakhapatnam and laid a trap with the help of the police. The accused was arrested when he arrived at the residence of the complainant.

Dubious website
He had an electronic safe, which contained small packets of hard black paper concealed in white cotton. The DCP said that during the course of investigation it was found that the accused and his associates had created a fake RBI website and sent text messages to randomly-selected people stating that they had won huge amounts of money.

Those who fell in their trap were asked to deposit money in various accounts. The accused would give their victims a tax code in exchange of that money to enable them transfer the prize money into their accounts. They would then fool their victims with black paper saying they were defaced US dollars, which could be restored by applying a chemical.

Mr. Viswa Prasad said that the accused came to Mumbai on business purpose in 2008. His visa, which seemed to be genuine, had expired in June 2011.

Though he claims to be only an agent of the fraudulent company, he has been overstaying in the country.