The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Woman arrested for email fraud

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Saturday, Jan 19, 2008
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Karnataka - Bangalore

Woman arrested for email fraud

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: The Yelahanka New Town police have arrested a 35-year-old woman from Noida who had allegedly duped a railway employee of Rs. 1.75 lakh by sending him email that he had won U.K. £1 million and a BMW car in a lottery.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Syed Ulfath Hussein told presspersons on Thursday that police went to Noida and arrested Michelle C. Wells, a native of Kolkata. After having worked in some leading hotels, Michelle was running a consultancy in Noida, he said. Mr. Hussein said Muthu Kumar, a resident of the Railway Quarters in Yelahanka New Town, received an email on July 30 that he had won £1 million and the latest Five Series BMW car in a lottery draw held in London on July 29.

Mr. Kumar’s mail address was picked from 25,000 email addresses during the draw, the mail said. Mr. Kumar was instructed to get in touch with Visual Despatch Delivery agency through email to collect the prizes.

Subsequently, the agency emailed him asking him to deposit Rs. 47,843 in a particular bank account as insurance premium for the car.

An unsuspecting Mr. Kumar deposited the money on September 6. He then received another mail asking for another Rs. 1.29 lakh to pay the British Inland Revenue Commission. He complied again. It was when he was asked to pay an additional Rs. 3 lakh to obtain clearance from the “Anti-Terrorist Department” that he finally suspected foul play and lodged a complaint with the Yelahanka New Town police on November 11.

On the basis of the account number and other clues, the police arrested Michelle, a resident of Jalavayu Vihar.

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