Four hi-tech lottery fraudsters have been arrested in a swoop organized by the National Lottery Authority (NLA) and the police in the Volta Region.
Godwin Agbenyefia alias Demon, 19; Reuben Abusah alias Last Burial, 20; Kelvin Kwame Abouzi alias Kartel, 20, and Kingsley Adelekey, 21, were operating from Akatsi and Ho in the Volta Region using assortment of social media channels Facebook accounts to impersonate the NLA and use it to defraud people.
The Circuit Court in Ho, presided over by Felix Datsomor, has remanded the suspects in police custody to reappear on September 23, 2020.
A statement from the Public Relations Unit of the NLA explained that the victims of the fraudulent activities of the suspects easily fell for their trickeries which came in the form of the offer of fake winning numbers.
The NLA has consistently educated the staking public on the tricks of fraudsters yet many still fall victim to the crooks.
The game-plan starts with the fraudsters receiving various sums of money from their targets with the intention of staking lotto numbers for them.
Following the draws of the numbers by the NLA, the fraudsters send photographs of fake winning coupons (prize) to their victims suggesting that they have won lotto.
The next step is a demand for between 20% and 40% of the amount they claim the victims won before NLA would pay their winning tickets.
When the percentage payment of the winning amount is made, the fraudsters quickly block the phone calls of their victims and disappear.
They are also able to convince their victims to send money for a so-called registration to qualify for ‘leaked winning numbers.’
The NLA has restated that it has not designed any registration forms for winning numbers.
The outcomes of lotto draws are conducted in an open and transparent manner, a process which the authority added is open to the general public for witnessing daily, except Sundays and public holidays.
“It is absolutely false that people and staff of the authority have access to winning lotto numbers,” the statement went on.
The NLA has commended the Volta Regional Police Command for the successful operation and expressed its continuous commitment to collaboration to weed out criminals in the industry.
The authority has stated again that “lotto is a game of chance and it is impossible to foretell winning numbers before draws.”
The authority expressed disappointment that in spite of warnings to the public about crooks, some still make mobile money transfers to such criminals.
By A.R. Gomda