Date:18/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/18/stories/2008011861040400.htm

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.

Smelled a rat

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 into which he had deposited the money and other clues, the police homed in on Michelle, a resident of Jalavayu Vihar in Noida, arrested her on January 9 and brought her to Bangalore. “As we had booked her on charge of cheating under the Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code and also the amount involved was relatively small, she managed to obtain bail from a local court,” Mr. Hussein said.

The police are on the lookout for three of her accomplices.