Gang of ATM cheaters busted, two arrested by Delhi Police

A gang of fraudsters was busted by the Delhi Police, who used to loot money from the bank accounts of people by using their ATM cards. The gang mostly targeted old and vulnerable people, who could be tricked easily. The accused were arrested near Azadpur mandi.

According to the police, the accused Mohd Aarif (24) and Sameer (21) used to do the ATM card swapping and cheated innocents and gullible people. To deal with the increased cases of ATM swapping, police had formed teams to trace the accused. Police received a tip-off that Aarif and Sameer will come near fruit mandi, Azadpur. The police laid the trap and both the accused were apprehended on the spot.

A few ATM cards along with a motorcycle was recovered from them. On interrogation, the accused disclosed that they were allured by the fancy lifestyle in the city. They joined a gang of fraudsters, who used to cheat people. They secretly looked at the ATM passwords of the cardholders while offering help.


On the pretext of providing help, they would swap the ATM card of the victim and withdraw money from ATMs or use their cards for online shopping. They mainly targeted senior citizens, who would need help for operating the ATM machines.

With the arrest of the accused persons, 8 cases of cheating through ATM cards and 1 case of auto-theft has been worked out.

"The investigation is still going on and the local concerned police station has been informed accordingly," said Alok Kumar, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch).

FANCY LIFESTYLE
A few ATM cards along with a motorcycle was recovered from them. On interrogation, the accused disclosed that they were allured by the fancy lifestyle in the city.

Cheat call centre busted, 11 arrested

Mora coastal police have busted an alleged fake call centre racket that operated from a rental office in Vikhroli with the arrest of 11 men, including three masterminds, for duping insurance policy holders.


The gang was busted after cops probed a February case where a Raigad school principal was duped of Rs 96,000. A caller had contacted the principal, Hemant Mhatre (52), a resident of Kegav village in Mora, by posing as a representative of DHFL life insurance company and offered him a settlement for his insurance claim of Rs 34.9 lakh if he cleared his outstanding premiums. The caller made Mhatre make deposits in a bank account of Vikrant Shirodkar, a key accused.

The arrested key accused are Shirodkar of Palghar, and Pramod Jadhav and Vineet Suryakant of Vikhroli. The others are tele-callers Bhaurao Akhade, Amarendra Pal, Suraj Saroj and Aashish Kumar Tiwari from Vikhroli, and Kalyan’s Amol Kadam, Bhiwandi’s Rajan Ghadi, Mumbra’s Deepak Tiwari and Kurla’s Arvind Singh.

Inspector Dattatray Kindre said, “The gang has been operating the call centre for eight months. We have frozen their six bank accounts in Virar, Vasai and Thane, in which their targets were made to deposit the premium amounts.”

How a 21-year-old Delhi hotel management graduate duped Amazon of Rs 50 lakh

Often buyers from online retailers complain of receiving boxes filled with scrap instead of the ordered items. In genuine cases, the retailers refund the buyers. A 21-year-old Delhiite, Shivam Chopra, turned this policy into 'business'.

He ordered 166 premium smartphones from Amazon from different phone numbers and a fake address. When delivery boys failed to locate him, he guided them to some nearby location to take delivery. Later, he would complain to Amazon that he had received an empty box and claimed a refund. He used to sell the phones on OLX or in Gaffar flea market.

He duped Amazon of Rs 50 lakh between April and May this year.

When Amazon realised it was being deceived, it approached Delhi Police. After a few months of investigation, the police zeroed in on Chopra. They have seized 19 mobile phones, Rs 12 lakh cash and 40 bank passbooks and cheque books from him. The police has also arrested a shopkeeper who used to supply him pre-activated SIM cards for Rs 150 each.

Infected needle kills teen, doc to pay ₹4L for wrong advice

Sixteen years after an unsterilized needle used on an 18-year-old Kandivli youth for viral fever led to development of “gas gangrene” and his subsequent death, the state consumer commission dismissed an appeal by one of the two negligent doctors. The commission has ordered the doctor, J G Kini, to pay Rs 4 lakh compensation to the teenager’s father, Jagannath Zagade, as awarded by a district consumer forum in 2010. Kini, who has his clinic in Charkop, will also have to pay Rs 10,000 as costs to Zagade.


The second doctor, K G Dalvi, who was also held guilty of negligence by the district forum, has since died. The commission said Kini now has to pay the full compensation.

The complainant said that Dalvi had dropped the syringe with its needle on the floor while administering it to his son, Minesh, but simply picked it up and used it without sterilizing it. The commission said that due to wrong advice by both doctors, Minesh’s condition got worse. The doctors had said that hospitalization was not required though a gas gangrene had developed.

The state consumer commission relied on an expert opinion that “by not admitting Minesh in hospital, both opponents (doctors) had shown gross negligence...”

Upholding the district forum’s order in holding Kini guilty of negligence, the Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission said, “It has become clear that advice given by opponent no 1(Dalvi) to Minesh (victim) that his condition is not critical and there is no need of hospitalization was totally wrong...”

According to Zagade, on August 28, 2002, Minesh had high fever and his

other son, Vilas, took him to Kini’s clinic. The doctor gave Minesh an injection on the left hip. Minesh developed high fever again on September 9, 2002. Minesh went back to Kini’s clinic but it was closed, he said. He then went to Dalvi’s clinic with his brother. The father said that when Dalvi was giving an injection, the needle and syringe fell on the floor. He said that the doctor picked it up and without sterilizing it, gave the injection. Zagade said that the next day, Minesh suffered severe pain on the left side of his hip and there was swelling at the spot where the injection was given. Minesh then went back to Dalvi, who gave some medicines.

Zagade said that on September 4, 2002, the swelling on the left hip increased and Minesh found it difficult to move. Vilas then took Minesh to the first doctor, Kini. The father said that Vilas had shown his readiness to admit Minesh to hospital but Kini told him that there was no urgency.

As his health did not improve, Minesh was admitted to hospital a day later. He was then referred to a BMC hospital, where after carrying out tests, doctors told the family that a surgery was needed, but Minesh was not in a state to undergo it. He died on September 6, 2002.

Kini’s advocate told the state consumer commission that septicaemia (a cause of death) had been caused due to the injection given by Dalvi. He submitted that hence, Kini had no direct nexus with Minesh’s death . The advocate also submitted that when Minesh came to Kini, there was no question of hospitalising him as his condition was not critical.

The commission, however, said that when Minesh had developed gas gangrene on the left side of his hip, the only remedy was to have him admitted him to hospital for an operation and to drain the pus out.

Flat buyer duped of ₹15L as owner, 2 agents sell him mortgaged house

A flat owner and two real estate agents have been booked for allegedly duping a flat buyer of Rs 15 lakh. A case was registered at NRI Coastal police station at the directions of a magistrate’s court in Vashi.


A resident of Seawoods-Nerul, Amit Gupta

(37), had lodged a complaint of cheating against Thalonikara Pal, the flat owner, and agents Dilip Kudathil and Shivkumar Sharma.

The three men allegedly connived to sell a flat in a housing society in Seawoods, Nerul, to Gupta and his father as joint owners. This, despite Pal having already mortgaged the flat to a bank against a loan for which the outstanding was Rs 2.38 crore.

Senior inspector Smita Jadhav said that in June 2014, Pal sold the flat to the Guptas for Rs 85 lakh, with Kudathil and Sharma as mediators. The Gupta family was residing in the flat. Pal, however, kept dilly-dallying registration of the flat’s sale deed. In December 2014, the bank sent a legal notice about the mortgage in the name of Pal as the flat owner which was received by the Guptas. The notice mentioned the outstanding amount. Gupta then approached theb police.

Friendship club - lured bizman into honeytrap, duped him of ₹25L

Cops bust gang that lured bizman into honeytrap, duped him of ₹25L


The Gamdevi police have busted a ‘friendship club’ racket and arrested four members of the gang that would lure victims into a honeytrap and stage police raids wherein fake cops would demand money to hush up the matter.


The arrested accused —Andheri resident Daliya Sumasti (51), gang leader Ayub Rahman Khan, and Ganesh Solanki and Raghvendra Aotgire, who posed as policemen—have been booked for cheating, impersonation and criminal conspiracy. The police are on the lookout for their six accomplices, including three women.

The arrests were made based on a complaint by a businessman from Bhulabhai Desai Road who was cheated of Rs 25 lakh by the ‘friendship club’ members.

The complainant said that in April, a woman, who identified herself as Gimmy, called on his phone and offered membership in her ‘friendship club’. “They would chat every day,” said a police officer. “In May, Gimmy asked him to meet her outside Andheri station. She then took him to a flat in Amboli, where she introduced him to two other women saying they were her friends. She then offered him a drink.” The complainant told the police that half an hour later, two men rang the doorbell. “They said they were policemen and had received a complaint about a prostitution racket being run at the flat. “They demanded Rs 10 lakh from the complainant to not book him in a prostitution case. The victim bargained and said he would give Rs 5 lakh. They agreed,” said the police officer. The complainant said that he took ‘policemen’ Solanki and Aotgire to his bank in Babulnath, withdrew Rs 5 lakh and gave it to them.

In June, the victim got a call from another woman, who identified herself as Anita Mistry and said she wanted to be his friend. On his birthday, Anita asked him to meet her in Dahisar and sent her address on WhatsApp. “The complainant said there were two other women in the flat, who Anita introduced as her paying guests. While the two women sat in the living room, Anita asked him to follow her to the bedroom and offered him a drink,” said the police officer. After 15 minutes, Solanki and Aotgire raided the flat and ‘busted’ a prostitution racket. This time, they sought Rs 15 lakh, but the victim bargained and brought it down to Rs 5 lakh. Again, he took them to his bank, withdrew cash and gave it to them.

A week later, an unidentified man reached the businessman’s residence and demanded he pay Rs 15 lakh else the two ‘cops’ would arrest him in the prostitution racket. The complainant panicked and paid up. After a few days, he realized that he had been duped and approached the Gamdevi police. Following a probe, the police tracked down Khan in Bhayander two weeks ago. His interrogation led them to Solanki and Aotgire. The police suspect the gang might have duped several men using this modus operandi.

Sextortion cases targeting men on the rise

An increasing number of men across India are falling victim to online honeytraps who lure them into performing sexual acts in front of a webcam and then threaten to post the video online unless they get money, reports Mohua Das.

“Indian men tend to indulge in sexual fantasies online more freely than women do. But when eventually trapped, they fear for their reputation and avoid the police,” says Balsing Rajput, superintendent of police (cyber), Maharashtra, who is studying cyber-economic crimes.


Beware those online sirens
Sex and blackmail are taking on a vicious new life on the internet

On a late February evening after work, Rahul Mehta (name changed), a 27-year-old bachelor in Delhi, was settling into his favourite bedtime routine — swiping left and right on a dating app, looking for a potential mate. Suddenly, a message popped up: ‘Hi, I’m Areej. Let’s chat’. “I had a match and she was beautiful. Darkhaired, fair-skinned, light-eyed…and from Morocco,” recalls Rahul.

Excited at the possibility of moving his digital dating life into the real world, he went from matching on Tinder to chatting on WhatsApp to video-calling each other on Facebook within a few days.


“Take off your T-shirt,” she wrote to Rahul one evening. Aroused by the mysterious woman, he did as told. The next thing he knew, Rahul had stripped and was climaxing in front of the camera. In a few minutes, another message popped up, this time with an online link to a video recording of his act and a terrifying voice message. “You have been fooled. I’m a man, not a woman, and if you do not send me $2000, I will share the video with your friends and family,” it said.

Crippled by fear and shame, the software engineer pleaded with his blackmailer. “I told him I had no money and managed to bring the figure down to $20. After he received the money transfer, I blocked him on my phone.” A second ransom demand for $100 followed but this time, Rahul turned to law enforcement agencies. “I haven’t heard from him ever since.”

People have always been fools for love and lust. But the sweeping reach and possibilities of the internet have intensified risks and made those seeking companionship vulnerable to a 21st-century crime called ‘sextortion’ or sexual extortion.

Mentally and financially damaging, this form of cyber-blackmail is becoming more common in India. In Pune recently, a 28-year-old newly married man in Pune opened an email from an unknown sender one morning to find sexually explicit photos and videos of himself from a past online encounter. The mail demanded a ransom of a lakh to avoid disclosure. “Scared of how it might destroy his marriage, he came to me and the police. We managed to track the IP address. It turned out to be a man and he was arrested,” says Ritesh Bhatia, a Mumbaibased cybercrime investigator who has witnessed a spike in sextortion cases in the past one year.

Out of 15 victims he dealt with, ten were men. Earlier this year, a 65-yearold man from Nashik got ripped off by Rs 8.32 lakh by his sexting partner. Intervention by cops helped seize the scammer’s account.

A pan-India survey by Microsoft last year revealed how widespread the problem is. Of the teens (aged 13-17) and adults (18-74) who were asked about their encounters with 17 different online risks across four categories — behavioural, reputational, sexual, and intrusive — 77% Indians reported their concerns on unwanted sexual solicitation, sexting, revenge porn, or sextortion.

Curiously, the report revealed that more males in India had reported risks across the categories at 64%. This may be because more women (61%) had tightened their privacy controls compared to males (50%) after experiencing online risk. “Males in India are more confident about managing incivility, and, therefore experience more personal risks,” stated the report.

Formal arrests in sextortion cases are still a rarity. The nature of the offence compels most victims to stay anonymous, out of fear, shame and self-blame. “The anonymity that the Internet offers can cloud judgment and Indian men tend to indulge in sexual fantasies online more freely than women. When trapped in a cyber scam, they fear for their reputation and avoid the police,” says Balsing Rajput, SP cyber, Maharashtra. “The victim should understand that even though they consented to getting clicked or sent pictures, they still have a right to justice,” he says.

The predators hiding behind the photograph or fake webcam video of an attractive woman are almost always men too. The scammer could be an old flame, a neighbour or a honey trap most likely in the Philippines or Nigeria. “Although the easiest way to trace them is through the servers, most scammers use virtual private networks and ask for money in bitcoin and overseas accounts that makes it challenging for us,” says Rajput.

Extortion by means of sexual harassment was the second most popular method after phishing, reveals Rajput, a PhD scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, who is studying cyber economic crimes in India between 2002 and 2016.

“Cyber economic crime is borderless and no single agency controls the Internet. Law enforcement agencies face a major problem in collecting information from foreign countries,” he says.

But the upside is that matters of cybercrime and justice are being taken seriously by law enforcers and social media. “Victims and service-providers need to come forward to help us trace and bust such syndicates,” he adds.




FLIRTING WITH DANGER: Screenshots of the threat and the money transfer made by Rahul Mehta after he received a ransom demand of