Military Personnel victims of cyber crime

Frauds go online to cheat people by Sandeep Rana: Tribune News Service
Dehradun, December 24, 2009
If you receive an email from your friend asking you for monetary help as he is in a dire need somewhere abroad, then beware and check out with him if he really wants some help. Off late, many frauds had employed this trick to cheat people of their hard-earned money.

The modus operandi wherein cheaters first procure personal information of a person and then ask his friends for monetary help by hacking his personal email ID has trapped even well-known names of the city as well.

Several city residents have fallen prey to these cheaters. Some even lodged complaints with the police while others simply avoided such emails.

Even though the Dehradun police doesn’t have separate data for how many such complaints have been received, such emails is a cause of concern and an awareness drive is the only cure.

A victim of such emails, Brig KG Behl (retd), complained to the police last week that his email ID had been hacked and emails were sent through his ID to his friends asking for $2,500 urgently as he (Brigadier Behl) had got stranded in London and had lost his belongings.

Brigadier Behl added that the emails had mentioned the postal address of London where money was to be sent and asked to email the money transfer control number (MTCN) with details required to send it.

Garwhal IG MA Ganpathy said: “One such case in five or six months comes to us. This is basically a cyber crime and we register such cases under the IT Act and start investigation.

“A few Nigerians were held in Tehri who were involved in cyber crime some times ago”.

The IG maintained that these works were solely done by foreigners and there was no possibility of involvement of any local in such cases.

Another modus operandi of such cheats, emails pronouncing you as a winner of big jackpots and prizes are very common these days and people easily avoid them knowing the trick behind these.

However, a woman of Turner Road was cheated of over 3 lakh in September in one such case. The victim, Anjum, in her complaint to the police had alleged that she had received an email saying that she had won Rs 2 crore lottery from a London-based company. She was asked over the phone to deposit some earnest amount in an account mentioned by it. She used to receive receipts of her payments through emails. After a few payments worth more than Rs 3.5 lakh, the email stopped replying and the woman later contacted the police.

Station house officer of the Patel Nagar police station Chandan Singh Bisht said the only way to catch the persons involved in such cyber crimes was through their cell phone from which they contacted the victim. But, it was found switched off as the woman had approached the police quite late.

The police is now relying on the EMI number of the cellphone through surveillance to nab the frauds, but it is possible only if they use the cell phone again.
Frauds go online to cheat people

Lt Col D Chaturvedi (retd) was in a shock when, on December 28, he came to know that an amount of Rs 4, 93, 528 has been debited from his pension account at the Survey of India branch of Punjab National Bank fraudulently.
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Defence Pension Racket
NAGPUR: A retired Lieutenant Colonel has moved the high court here claiming that many persons were illegally drawing pension meant for World War-II (WW-II) veterans. The 61-year-old Lt Col Shrikant Kane produced information obtained under Right to Information (RTI) Act and said as many as 59 persons were being given pension in contravention of eligibility norms for years. The amount involved may run lakhs.

The petitioner who retired as regular officer of Indian Army's Corps of Signals after over two decades of service has prayed for directions to the state government to investigate the matter and arrest the beneficiaries. Alternatively, he demanded an enquiry by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) within a stipulated period.
Retd army man exposes defence pension racket

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