New Delhi, March 12 (IANS) A 35-year-old Nigerian national was arrested for running a fraudulent online lottery racket worth millions of rupees, police said Friday.

Police said that the man identified as Ozoya Isaian, lived in south Delhi's upscale Greater Kailash residential area.

The Nigerian sent SMSes to people claiming they had won a British lottery and told them to deposit some money in the name of service charges, customs clearance and other bank formalities.

"As soon as a gullible person would deposit money in the designated accounts, he would transfer the money to different accounts so that he is not identified. He had cheated crores of rupees from a number of innocent people," a police officer said.

He was arrested from central Delhi's Karol Bagh area following a complaint made by a Pune resident in August last year.

During investigation, police found that Isaian came to India in 2006 on an education visa which expired two years ago.

A laptop, two pen drives containing data of accounts, addresses and phone numbers, three mobile phones and an internet data card have been recovered from Isaian.