Sri Lankan businessman defrauded by Nigerian

By Lakmal Sooriyagoda

A Nigerian, who had allegedly been involved in organised crime, deceiving Sri Lankans assuring that they were eligible for lottery winning prizes, was remanded till 18 July by a Colombo Court yesterday.

The suspect was arrested by the CID following a complaint made by a businessman in Wellawatte. The businessman complained that he received a SMS stating, “You won 750,000 pounds in the ESPN cricket board mega lottery, to get prize send your name/address/phone number/email/age/occupation to [email protected].”

Accordingly, the Sri Lankan businessman had sent his details via an email. In reply, the businessman had received an email stating the winning prize would be delivered to him via a courier service.

The email message had requested the businessman to pay US$ 1,000 as service charge and further asked him to pay the amount to an agent who would come to meet him at a hotel in Colombo.

Thereafter, the businessman had paid US$ 1,000 to a person who introduced himself as the courier service agent at a Colombo hotel on 7 July. Following the transaction, the businessman had made a complaint with CID stating that he realised that he had been deceived by the foreigner who collected the money at the hotel. The CID which conducted investigations into the incident arrested the suspect and produced him before Colombo Fort Magistrate. The suspect produced before Magistrate Kanishka Wijeratne was ordered to be remanded till 18 July.

The CID charged that the suspect could be involved in organised crimes and that he was staying in the country without a visa.