Fake online lottery raises terror funds

Bengaluru: Online lottery scams, which are the commonest Internet frauds, are now reportedly being operated by cross-country jehadi groups to fund terror activities in India.

In a shocking revelation the interrogation of the five alleged hawala operators in Bihar and Jharkhand, who have allegedly funded the Oct­ober 27, Patna blast has revealed that they were recruited by some unidentified men for operating the fake online lottery sc­ams and alluring gul­lible peo­ple into it.

“They had collected lot of money through this online fraud. Some gullible recipients, who had responded to the mails electronically remitted advance fee for bogus lottery in different bank accounts, which were mentioned in the mails. This money was reportedly used for the Patna blast,” said an official source.

The alleged five hawala operators — Raju Sao from Dhanbad in Jha­rkhand, Gopal Kumar Go­yal, Vikas Kumar, Paw­an Kumar and Ga­nesh Ku­mar from Lakhisarai district in Bihar, who were arrested in connection with the Patna blast, re­portedly told the police that they were paid com­mis­­sion to operate the fraud.

“They have several bank accounts in which people used to remit money. The accused used to further transfer the funds to some unknown accounts, including that of Ayesha Bano from Mangalore, which was later withdrawn to execute the Patna blast,” the officer added.

Unsolicited online messages informing people that they have won a large sum of money in an international lottery are the commonest frauds. But despite media coverage on the fraud, fall in the trap and respond to the fraudulent messages and electronically transfer some funds as advance fee to the scamsters’ bank accounts to cover expenses associated with delivery of the supposed lottery.