The special cell of the Delhi Police has stumbled upon a syndicate of Pakistani cheats who have been taking the cover of Amitabh Bachchan's Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) to commit a '419-type fraud' on Indians. Eight Indian associates of the pan-Asian syndicate, with tentacles spreading to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, have been placed under arrest. Over 130 bank accounts were being used by the cheats to collect money from gullible Indians.
Called "crimes of persuasion", such types of fraud are mostly practiced by Nigerians in consort with cohorts in several countries. They are also called a '419-type fraud' because section '419' of the Nigerian Criminal Code (NCC) deals with such crimes. The makers of KBC have been aware of such a con being played, and Big-B has already used the KBC platform to warn people.
What's new, however, is that the Pakistan links of the cheats have been laid bare. Working on inputs from by intelligence agencies, the special cell tracked the Indian conduits of the Pakistani fraudsters. Their MOU was sweet talk, and persuasion, besides a ready supply of ATM cards and mobile phones.
"Calls are made to select cellphone numbers. The Pakistan-based cheats would inform an unaware Indian that he/she had won a Rs20/30 lakh lottery based on selection of his/her cellphone number in a random draw and that the prize money would be paid on the sets of KBC. If the eagerness shows in the Indian's reaction, the caller would direct the call to another Pakistani number telling the victim that he/she was being connected to the lottery processing unit," the police said.
The sweet talk continues, and the lure of the prize money is dangled again and again to "mesmerize" the call recipient. When the entrapment is more or less fully sprung, the victim is asked to part with a small amount of money to lay his/her hands on the "handsome amount of money." The account number of an Indian bank is then given, and the victim is told to deposit the "processing fee" in that account. If the con works, the victim is left high and dry, with only a couple of phone numbers and a bank account number to vent frustration on.
"The special cell started investigating after a specific complaint was made by a resident of Delhi. Raids were conducted at various places in Delhi and three persons were arrested. Cash and ATM cards of several banks including HDFC, ICICI, UCO, SBI and Syndicate Bank along with 10 mobile phones were seized, besides records of bank transactions and bank passbooks," the special cell said in a statement.
The police have not closed investigations. What has alarmed them is that the crime is being committed from Pakistan, and that money from was being siphoned off to Pakistan. There is every probability that the money might be diverted for commission of acts against India, the police said.
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