Hyderabad: The AP Crime Investigation Department has busted an online lottery racket by arresting Ebagua Michel, a Nigerian. He was operating from a rented flat in Gurgaon.

Police said Ebagua Michel had cheated a Kurnool businessman of Rs 1.7 lakh and several others from different parts of the country.

Police said the victim K. Venkateswara Reddy had lodged a complaint at the cyber crime police station of CID saying that an unknown person cheated him in the name of winning an online lottery and extracted Rs 1,79,500 from him.

“The suspect had convinced Mr Reddy that he had won a lottery worth several crores by sending him an SMS. Believing the promises Mr Reddy deposited money as charges for processing fee, Income Tax, customs duty etc for getting the prize amount,” said SP Kanthi Rana Tata of the CID.

“During the interrogation the suspect confessed that he had committed the offence by sending bulk SMSs to various persons in India. He give different bank accounts to the victims to deposit money after convincing them,” said Mr Tata.

The bank accounts belong to others and are used by the racketeers on commission basis. A police team raided Michel’s flat at Sushant Lok-3 in Gurgaon and arrested him.