Money scam: Nigerians try new tricks, conmen take advantage of Indians’ weaknesses
17 Oct 2015 6:50 AM GMT
Kukatpally realtor duped with a promise of commission in a deal
The scamsters, who pretend to be rich Syrians want to move to India, send emails seeking help to move their money and gold and make the victims deposit money in the name of customs charges etc.
Hyderabad: Srinivas Chalagalla, a realtor and a builder in Kukatpally, received an email from a woman claimed to be Dr Zarah Latifa from Syria few months back. The woman claimed that she was rich but wanted to escape from her country due to internal emergency there.
In more than 50 email conversations with Mr Srinivas, she convinced him that she would buy property in Hyderabad and will pay him 40 per cent as commission. She sent him copies of an ID card, and other documents to prove her identity. The woman later said she sent him $5.7 million in a consignment to Delhi.
After few weeks, Mr Srinivas got a call from a man claiming to be an official from ‘customs department’. The person told Mr Srinivas that $5.7 million has arrived in Delhi, and asked him about the deal he had with a Syrian national. When Mr Srinivas said it was a property deal, he asked him to deposit money towards various charges in order to get the consignment. Mr Srinivas paid more than '6 lakh. But he didn't get the mentioned consignment. He later realised that he was tricked by scammers.
After his complaint was lodged, Cyberabad police found it was a Nigerian fraudster behind the scam. Nigerian scamsters have moved past from their conventional methods like lottery fraud to another level by adopting new techniques.
Conmen take advantage of Indians’ weaknesses
Nigerian fraudsters are part of well organised gangs that are connected to cartels in their own country. Not just India, but Pakistan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, and East Asian countries are also targeted by them. Unlike Indian scammers, Nigerians can con a single victim multiple times using well scripted methods, said senior Cyber Crime officials.
Most of the scammers arrive in India on stude-nt, business or tourist visas and stay in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Mumbai. Few of th-em even come to India with either fake passpo-rt or two or more passports.
The gangs have secret meetings and even division of labour among themselves. “During interrogation, few of the suspects have confessed that they do not operate alone, but are part of a large, well organised gang,” said a Cyber Crime official.
The gang usually use Indian citizens for financial transactions. They mobilise labourers or petty workers and make them open bank accounts where the money from the scams come in. However, they do not have direct contacts with these Indian account holders.
“There are a few intermediaries between the Nigerian gang and Indian account holders. This is to mislead the police, who try to track the frauds through the bank accounts. Even if the cops catch the intermediaries during investigation, it is often difficult to track the Nigerians,” said an official.
Most of the conmen are perfectly aware of the weaknesses of Indians.
“Majority of the victims are educated. The crooks could cheat them all more than once misusing their greed for money. This shows how smart these scammers really are,” said a Cyber Crime cop.
In order to avoid getting caught during international money transfers, after a successful operation, instead of se-nding the money to their country, the gang purchases products with the money and export the same to their country.
Hyderabad cops fail to curb offences
City police has arrested more than 70 African nationals in connection with various scams.
The trend shows th-at the offences have been increasing desp-ite the efforts of pol-ice to bring awareness among people. Most of the fraudst-ers have cheated multiple victims, who are from different parts of the country.
Experts say that the fraudsters will lure more victims as citizen getting access to email and similar communication technology in the country is growing day-by-day.
The crooks usually send bulk emails to hundreds of people with same content, and when few revert believing their proposals, the fraud begins.
Senior police officials say that the best way to avoid being duped is not to respo-nd to such emails from strangers. “The emails with a proposal that contains a seemingly unlikely situation, huge money, and fancy promises will surely be a scam. People need to be extra careful when they reply to such emails,” said an officer.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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