Businessman informs police after he got a call to pay Rs75,000
to claim ‘lottery prize’.
When Yashwant Shinde, 42, received an email claiming that he was the winner of an online lottery, the Thane-based businessman ignored it. But a few days later when he received a call from an unknown number saying that he needed to pay Rs75,000 as custom duty for the ‘gift’ he had won, Shinde knew that it was a fraud.
The alert businessman filed a police complaint on August 8 with the Azad Maidan police, which led to the arrest of a Nigerian national on Sunday from Vasant Kunj in Delhi. The arrested has been identified as Thomas Howard.
According to the police, Shinde had received the email earlier this month and suspected foul play when he received the call. “The caller was Howard. He told Shinde that he had been detained by the custom officers for carrying the imported gift,” said Yashwant Thoravde, police inspector, Azad Maidan police station.
“Later, a woman claiming to be a custom officer called him asking him to pay Rs75,000. Howard gave Shinde an account number and asked him to deposit the amount in HSBC bank’s Fort branch,” the official said.
After Shinde filed a complaint, the police checked the numbers he had received the calls from and found that they were from Delhi. “Also, the account belonged to one Dheeraj Pal Vaid from Delhi. However, he wasn’t aware that the account was being misused,” Thoravde said.
A team of four police officials then left for the national capital. During investigation, the police found that Vaid had opened the account for one of his friends. “We believe that his friend was also a part of this scam. Once an unsuspecting victim deposited the money, he would allegedly withdraw the cash and hand it over to Sunita Chaudhari who worked as a mediator. She would then pass the money on to Howard,” Thoravde said, adding that Chaudhari had called Shinde pretending to be the custom officer.
“After Chaudhari’s involvement was discovered, we decided to lay a trap to nab the culprit. Acting on the police’s instructions, she asked Howard to meet her and collect the money. That was when he was arrested,” said Thoravde.
“We are investigating the matter to find out how many people he has cheated,” said Bhaurao Bhavle, senior inspector.
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