Ugandan national arrested for fraud

Hyderabad: A Ugandan national Fredrick Ssebugenyi, 27, was arrested from Shantinagar, Bengaluru, on Thursday by Rachakonda Cyber Cell sleuths.

In October last year, one K.B. Reddy of Vanasthalipuram, while browsing the internet for purchasing a used SUV, found an advertisement on OLX and on dialing the number posted, Fredrick spoke as Kadambi Lakshmi, owner of Fortuner vehicle put for sale.

The accused said he was a foreigner and his mother hails from Andhra Pradesh and left his vehicle at RGI Airport, Shamshabad authorizing the airport personnel to sell the vehicle. He shared the number of one Sonia Raj as Clearance and Forwarding Officer at the airport. His friend Jennifer spoke as Sonia and informed KB Reddy that he has to pay Rs 1.86 lakh towards parking, maintenance and demurrage fee as the vehicle was parked for more than a month and unless the fee was paid, he will not be allowed to inspect the vehicle personally.

The sum was said to be deducted from the final price agreed for sale of the vehicle. He emailed the details of Noida-based ICICI Bank account on the name of Messrs Kwins Enterprises through mail from car.depot.airport211@outlook.com. Two more email addresses: kadambilakshmi71@gmail.com and car.cargodept@gmail.com were used for sending mails to Reddy. After the money was deposited in the said bank account, he was asked to credit more funds citing some error calculation of fee, which was again said to be adjusted. Sensing something wrong, KB Reddy approached the Airport authorities, who made it clear that he was cheated.

The case was being investigated by Harinath, Asst. Commissioner of Police, Cyber Cell, Rachakonda; assisted by D. Ashish Reddy, Sub-Inspector, under the supervision of Nagaraj, Addl. DCP (Crimes), Rachakonda. The Commissioner of Police, Rachakonda Mahesh M. Bhagwat appreciated the efforts of Cyber Cell in detecting the case even after a year. (NSS)