The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Crimes too keep pace with technology

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Crimes too keep pace with technology

L. Srikrishna

The well-known offence in cyber world is “New Nigerian Scam” as it has originated from Nigeria

CHENNAI: With several people becoming tech-savvy and computer-literate, the scope for cyber crime has also increased.

Recently, a public sector bank in Chennai received a mail from one of its Non-Resident Indian account-holders abroad to transfer his fixed deposit of Rs.20 lakh to a bank in China. The customer had faxed the essential details as suggested by the banker. Subsequently, the deposit was transferred. After about six months, the customer, who wanted to renew the deposit, learnt from the banker that there was just the minimum balance in the account.

Both the banker and the customer were shocked over the manner in which they were duped. While the bank conducted a departmental probe, the customer approached the Bank Ombudsman and recovered the money. The bank lodged a complaint with the police.

Commissioner of Police G. Nanchil Kumaran directed the Central Crime Branch police to investigate the case.

Deputy Commissioner of Police S. Murugan said such offences were known as “New Nigerian Scam” in cyber world as it originated from Nigeria.

Similarly, a person, who recently operated net banking, claimed to have lost a few lakhs of rupees from his account. “Someone had siphoned off the money after obtaining personal data under the guise of the banker for updating their data bank…”, he alleged.

Explaining the case, ACP (Bank Fraud) M. Paneerselvam said the person had divulged his personal data in reply to a mail reportedly sent by his banker, which was actually not the case, when probed. Further investigation is on in the case.

Mr Murugan said that a credit card or a debit card was an important instrument for online transactions. A majority of the frauds are reported from travel and tourism sectors.

If an offender is in possession of the PIN and the card number of a particular account-holder, he can get access to the account and transfer the money, he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu