The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Golden handshake, literally!

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 26, 2006

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Golden handshake, literally!

A gang of women is on the prowl cheating gullible persons by selling fake gold biscuits, says MARRI RAMU

Anyone, especially women, will be tempted to buy if gold is offered at half the market price. Taking advantage of this weakness, some tricksters are taking gullible persons for a ride by offering them gold at dirt-cheap rates and passing on brass material.

This is not a new modus operandi but a gang of women has begun using this style to cheat people in the old city.

The women, dressed fashionably, approach gullible persons, mostly women, saying they were desperately in need of money.

Rings as proof

With their sweet talk, they lead people to believe that they have some gold biscuits to sell and offer them at half the market price. To ensure that people should not get suspicious, they show one or two small rings made of genuine gold. They give away the fake gold biscuits to the `victims' asking them to sell them and take money in advance. In a few cases, the cheats strike deals for outright sale of the gold biscuits and collect the money and vanish. Recently, Sakeena of Barkaas locality was cheated. It is said that there were several such cases, but the victims did not approach the police due to embarrassment.

Target group

These gangs target women when the latter are alone in the houses or come to shopping alone. Most of the victims are illiterate and above the age of 40 years.

In some cases, the tricksters wait at railway and bus stations looking out for persons coming from the rural areas.

They throw a biscuit made of brass on the road and when the innocent person picks it up out of curiosity, they approach him demanding a share in it, saying it is a gold biscuit. After cornering him thus, they would ask the person to give whatever money or gold he had towards their share and vanish.

Lack of leads

Tackling these crimes, detectives say, has become a problem as little information is available about gangs frequently using this modus operandi.

Though portraits of the accused persons have been prepared, they are not of much help in narrowing down on the culprits.

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