International lottery fraudster arrested

15 December 2003

MALAGA – A fraudster who made at least EUR 64,000 from an international lottery swindle has been arrested, it was reported Monday.

The 29-year-old Nigerian, who was arrested in Fuengirola, near Malaga, was said to have contacted victims in other countries.

He would tell them that they had won a prize of USD 25 million and to collect the money, they had to deposit two per cent of their winnings in a bank account.

The fraudster would send victims false documents which purported to relate to their lottery windfall in order to “demonstrate what he had explained”.

He would then say that he would keep their winnings until they paid the cash into a bank account.

To help the fraud, he would open a bank account in Fuengirola with a false British passport but using a real photograph of himself.

In just a month, he received different deposits from various victims which totalled EUR 64,540.

When he was arrested at a house in Fuengirola, officers found the man with EUR1,300 in cash, a computer, five mobile telephones, false documents and three savings accounts.

A number of victims came from Oslo in Norway and had contacted the Spanish ambassador in that country to complain about the fraud.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

subject: Spanish news