New Delhi: Three Nigerian nationals, staying illegally in India, have been arrested here for allegedly attempting to swindle a woman and threatening her when she refused to pay up, the police said on Wednesday.

Sleuths of Delhi Police Special Cell Tuesday held Saheed Alli Olayiwala, Adewale Adeniyi Isiak and Ismail Ayodele Keyode for trying to cheat a woman of thousands of rupees on the pretext of a lottery prize.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Alok Kumar said a probe was started on the complaint of a woman, who said someone had called her from the British high commission in March that she won a Microsoft promotion winner lottery worth $160 million.

She said she received a similar message on her cell phone too. The caller induced her to give personal details like her residential address and e-mail ID. The caller added that the lottery amount would be given to her only if she deposited 490 pounds (nearly Rs.40,000) as service charges in their ICICI Bank account.

"She got suspicious and contacted the British high commission, which told her the caller is a fraudster. She started ignoring their further calls, but the fraudsters called her through another number and told her that they had received the draft from the lottery company and had paid Rs.15,000 on her behalf," Kumar said.

"They then asked her to pay up the amount. When she refused, they threatened that they would harm her family and directed her to meet them or send her photograph by April 2," he added.

The police said the three men were arrested from Neb Sarai area in south Delhi and during investigations it was found that were overstaying in the country. A computer, a laptop, five mobile phones and six fake passports were seized from them.

During their interrogation, the three Nigerians revealed that their racket had its roots in Nigeria and was fragmented into small groups, which connive with one another to cheat people. The groups collect e-mail addresses of people on the net and pass them on to other groups for money.

The other splinter groups device novel methods to cheat people and sell their e-mail IDs to these racketeers, Kumar said.

Source : IANS