SCAMSTERS INC.

"Cybercrime in India, China, Russia and Brazil is a cause of 'particular concern', says University of Brighton's study: Crime Online: Cybercrime and Illegal Innovation"

Yes, India is the hub of global business process outsourcing. But this positive distinction has a negative side also. That is, the world leader in BPO business is also leading in call centre cybercrimes. This and more such findings have found place in a recent study by the University of Brighton, which says recession is driving computer-literate criminals to electronic scams.

The report, 'Crime Online: Cybercrime and Illegal Innovation' (http://eprints.brighton.ac.uk/5800/01/Crime_Online.pdf) , also warns that the current global recession will likely increase this trend of cybercrime still further and cybercrime in India, China, Russia and Brazil is a cause of "particular concern". There has been a "leap in cybercrime" in India in recent years, it added.

This report focuses exclusively on financial cybercrime, specifically credit card fraud and identity theft. Financial cybercrime has increased dramatically in recent years and looks set to increase further as the proliferation of communications technology proceeds apace and reaches regions of the world with many underemployed poor people with information technology skills who can take advantage of cybercrime opportunities.

"Russia, China and Brazil are world leaders in cybercrime, with groups and individuals in India powering up to compete. Yet companies in Europe and the US are increasingly moving IT functions and software development tasks to India, Brazil, Russia and Eastern Europe in a bid to draw on their good IT skills and lower wages", the study led by Professor Howard Rush adds.

Although cybercriminal activity remained low in India, with other emerging economies, there has been a leap in cybercrime in recent years, the study says quoting media reports. It also points to a report which ranked India in 2008 as the fourteenth country in the world hosting phishing websites.

Russia has traditionally been considered the original home of cybercrime, where high technical skills combine with a stumbling economy and a long tradition of organised crime, it says. Russian programmers are believed to be behind the most widely used malwaremaking toolkits such as Mpack and WebAttacker. Dubbed 'the mother of cybercrime', the Russian Business Network (RBN) has been linked by security firms to child pornography, corporate blackmail, spam attacks and online identity theft, although most Russian cybercrime is directed to financial fraud, particularly through botnets and phishing.

Across the world, the report predicts that cybercrime will continue to offer high rewards and low risks both to organised and to opportunistic criminals.

As more and more regions of the world go online, cybercrime is finding new and more permissive environments, especially in developing nations, where cybercrime is gaining a foothold, it adds.

Do you think this bad reputation will affect India's future in business process outsourcing?

Source: CIOL

The business of multi-level marketing companies (MMCs) and chit fund organizations is not confined to Balasore district.

As per reports, they have spread their tentacles to neighbouring Bhadrak and Mayurbhanj districts besides parts of Bhubaneswar, Rourkela and Sambalpur towns.

With the arrest of an MMC's promoter, the Crime Branch (CB) has unearthed several business secrets of such fake non-banking organizations. Promoter of Dream Achiever Saroj Kumar Samanta was arrested for allegedly duping people on the pretext of returning them thrice of their initial investment within a year. The arrest came a day after the CB busted a multi-crore chit fund scam in the state and froze at least 11 accounts, having money worth Rs 107 crore deposited in four banks in Orissa, Kanpur, Mumbai and Delhi.

"There are several such organizations that are still doing business, by fooling people. Investigation is on to spot these companies and nab their promoters. So far, seven MMCs have been detected, but there are 15 more under the CB scanner," said CB DSP P K Panda.

It is alleged that Dream Achiever, which had started business from Balasore since April 14, has stretched its reach to Basudevpur, Dhamra and other parts of Bhadrak district, besides some parts of Mayurbhanj district. CB sources claimed that this MMC had received a deposit of Rs 4.46 crore within four months, while only Rs 2 crore has been paid to its customers. The man behind the organization was also allegedly running another company that went by the name Dream Merchant. This company promised people good returns within a short period.

"Three youths in Basudevpur area have collected more than one crore from the people. But after the arrest of Samanta, they fled the place. As many known personalities have invested with them, they are ashamed to report it to the police. We request the crime branch to nab these frauds," said an investor. Meanwhile, the Crime Branch is continuing raids in different parts of the state and outside. The CB official said promoters of the money circulation schemes through high profile campaign have entrapped lower middle class people eager to become rich overnight.

"By enrolling oneself under such scheme, one would be getting back the initial paid investment and keep gaining financially by enrolling new members. But I am surprised that even after such a hullabaloo, there are reports of people investing in such schemes," Panda said, urging people not to get duped by tall promises.

Source:TOI

All the law enforcement agencies including the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) and UP police were put on a high alert here on
Saturday following the revelation made by senior State Bank of India officials that the owner of SRS Entertainment Company, Hanish Ram Chandani and his three co-partners, including his father, mother and his wife, have duped the bank
of whopping Rs 44 crore.

"We have already referred the case to CBI and also informed UP police to keep an eye on all the four accused so that they do not flee the country," said SBI sources.

Meanwhile, a member of a spot audit team from Hyderabad said that such kind of huge financial bungling cannot be done only by one person and added that "there's more than what meets the eye''.

"We are still investigating the case and more serious revelations are likely to come in the coming days and we are expecting that by Tuesday, first round of preliminary investigations will be over," said SBI general manager Arun Sarin.

Eight employees of SBI Kanpur main branch have already been suspended in connection with the case.

While deputy general manager, SBI main branch, Sanjay Dixit was suspended on Thursday, the remaining seven - AGM Ajeet Gupta, chief manager Jai Deep Banerjee, manager Vipin Kanaujiya and four others were suspended on Wednesday.

SBI chief general manager BV Chaubal, who is heading the inquiry into the scam, said Hanish Ram Chandani, who also owns a chain of filling stations in and around the city had opened a current account in the SBI for his firm -- SRS Entertainment Company -- in the year 2007. Later, in 2008, the firm opened two more accounts. The firm opened another account in 2009.

"Fake cheques were credited into the accounts of the four including Hanish, with the help of the bank officials," said an SBI official. The bank officials used to overdraft approvals without doing proper formalities, he claimed further.

"When the amount crosses Rs 5 crore then as per the Reserve Bank of India guidelines, the case should be handed over to the CBI, informed Chaubal while talking to TOI. The case has already been referred to the CBI besides other law enforcement agencies including the headquarters of RBI in Mumbai and Lucknow, he added.

A senior SBI officer said investigation of SBI main branch here located on Mahatma Gandhi Marg are being conducted in a manner which has not hampered the working of the bank.

SP (City) Dharamveer Singh, however, said the police are on the lookout for the four accused and we are trying to provide all sort of assistance to SBI officials.

Probe areas:

* Where the four accused have invested the whopping sum of Rs 44 crore.

* Besides four accused, who else is involved in the scam.

* What was the modus-operandi of withdrawing money.

Source: TOI

A Nigerian national was arrested here on Saturday in connection with an investigation into a case of email fraud that cost its victim here huge sum of money.

The 34-year old Nigerian, identified as Shaba Abdul Razak, was arrested by the police here at the end of a month-long probe into what is commonly referred to as ’419 scam’ or Nigerian email scam following a complaint from its victim hailing from Valapattanam here. The police here were still to ascertain whether the name found on his ID card was his real name. Disclosing the arrest of the Nigerian national, Inspector General of Police (Kannur Range) Tomin J. Thachankary saidthat the arrest followed an elaborate investigation with the co-operation of police officials in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Puducherry. The investigation also revealed that more people had fallen prey to thefraud by Nigerian racket in which the arrested was a member, he said, adding that the racket had fraudulently extracted an estimated Rs. 3 crore from its victims who hail from these States.

Mr. Thanchankary said that the police unravelled the email scam after Shareef, the victim, who had been working in Qutar, sent a complaint to Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan about his loss of huge amount after he was duped by the racket. The Home Minister had forwarded the complaint to the Cyber wing of the police. The Valapattanam police had registered the case and started investigation.

The scam had had its origin in an email message that Shareef had received in February 2008. The message sent from a mail ID purportedly from Bank of Africa had informed that Shareef had been selected as nominee to inherit a rich fortune ($15 million) left by a millionaire, the IG said. After a few exchange of emails, Shareef had been asked to go to the African city Burkina Faso to receive the fortune. When he had replied his inability to go there, he got a reply informing that a financial attorney had been appointed for overseeing the transfer of the amount. Shareef had also been asked to send 29,500 euro through Western Union Money Transfer as fee for the attorney, Mr. Thachankary said.

The IG said that Shareef had sent total 80,000 euro in response to requests from time to time by the Nigerian fraudsters for more money citing various excuses. Two members of the racket including the arrested had come to the victim’s house with a few bundles of blackened US dollars and said that the currency was blackened to avoid being found out by Customs officials. They also demanded more money from Shareef to purchase chemicals to clean the currency.

Following the complaint from Shareef, the police set a trap for the racket operating in the country. The Nigerian had been nabbed by the police in Bangalore and brought here, the IG said. He said that most of those who had fallen prey to the racket, as found from the email account accessed by the police, were not willing to lodge complaints about their being duped.

He also said that the amount transferred through the Western Union Money Transfer had been withdrawn in minutes by the fraudsters. The police, however, succeeded to freeze some of the money transferred by Shareef. The Nigerian scam racket often send computer viruses to victims’ computers to extract information about them and their contacts, he said. He also said that many Nigerians living in Mumbai and New Delhi were suspected to have been members of the fraudster racket. They also use their Indian associates to open bank accounts. As soon as they reached India, they use fake passports and ID cards, he added.

Source: The Hindu

Even as the illegal mining issue in Keonjhar district continues to rage, the state vigilance directorate has decided to file
criminal cases soon against a number of government officials who were allegedly involved in scam involving private company Raj Bahadur Thakur Limited, officials said on Saturday.

The state vigilance, which on Friday submitted to the state government a preliminary report confirming illegal mining and smuggling of iron and manganese ores from Rudukela and Katasahi in Keonjhar district, is currently engaged in the process of identifying the "real culprits" behind the illegal activities involving RBTL, officials said. "We have got the names of a number of government officials. It will take a few more days to identify the officials who are involved in this case," a vigilance source said.

According to vigilance wing's progress report, illegal mining had been found at the mines, for which RBTL had applied lease in 1994, as well as adjacent areas, including forest land. Vigilance sources revealed that the illegal activities had taken place with support from some officials of the state mines and forest departments.

Meanwhile, the state BJP, which blew the lid off the alleged Rs 4000 crore scam during the recent Budget session, said the vigilance findings had proved that the allegations being made by the party were correct. "The vigilance report is praiseworthy. But considering the magnitude of the scam and the possible involvement of political and other bigwigs, we demand that the CBI inquiry into the matter," state BJP president Suresh Pujari told a press conference.

Pujari maintained the RBTL scam was just the "tip of the iceberg" and indicated that the "kingpin" of the scam was a member of the ruling BJD. He, however, refused to name anyone and dared chief minister Naveen Patnaik to "prove his claims of honesty" and hand over the case to the CBI.

Source: TOI

The drive of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) to plug the loopholes in its octroi collection department has begun to pay off well from the
start of the drive since June this year. The octroi vigilance department has begun catching big fishes that used to escape the octroi tax net and some octroi officials are also likely to get caught up in the net for allowing the irregularities to take place.

The department unearthed a major scam involving the evasion of octroi at the Kalyan Phata and Shil Phata octroi collection posts on August 1. The persons involved in the scam used to pass goods laden vehicles into the city limits from the two nakas upon the production of bogus receipts of octroi payment and never used to get caught till now.

Arvind Akashi, the Assistant Municipal Commissioner (AMC) in charge of the octroi vigilance wing informed Thane Plus that he came across copies of some fake octroi tax payment receipts from Sana Agency, a licensed distributor of the soft drinks giant Pepsi. The agency had submitted the receipts to the giant and claimed refund of payment of octroi on the import of the soft drinks into Thane.

"We enquired the receipts and came to know that they were fake. We then sought with the company management to give us original copies of the receipts so that criminal of cheating and forgery can be filed against the accused," the AMC said. He added that the company gave ten original receipts reportedly issued between April 1, 2008 and March 31, this year.

All the receipts were found to be counterfeit in almost all respects. The paper used in the printing of the fake receipts was of a different quality than that of the original TMC receipts and so was the Marathi language font of the printing. Besides this the monogram and logo of the corporation printed in the centre of the receipt was also put up in a blurred way in the bogus receipts and was distinguishable readily from that of the original one.

The department came to know that the Shil Phata based agency had imported soft drinks to the tune of Rs 4.71 crore in the previous financial year and was supposed to pay around Rs 18.85 lakh by way of octroi tax to the TMC at the rate of four percent of the cost of imports. The vigilance officials also came to know that the agency had changed its name to Sweety Agency some one month ago and the intention of the change was not known.

The vigilance officials then filed a complaint of cheating with forgery of civic documents, misuse of logo signs and forgery of signature of octroi officials against the owner of the agency. The Daighar police registered the case under thirteen different sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on August 1 and have begun the investigations. One person is known to have been taken into custody so far.

The civic administration is strongly of the view that the octroi clearing agent of the agency could be the main culprit behind the scam. It is also said that the octroi officials posted at the Kalyan Phata and Shil Phata octroi nakas could be hand in glove with the culprits to allow the irregularities to take place. The belief is in the wake of the fact that it is almost impossible for any goods laden vehicle to drive into the city without payment of octroi by showing bogus octroi payment receipts to the naka officials.

The AMC made it clear that he has called upon the police to book everyone found involved in the racket even if the accused were civic officials also. "We want to put an end to the practice and make sure that all goods laden vehicles bound for the city pay their due octroi at all the octroi collection posts and the officials posted at the nakas also do their duties honestly," the AMC further added.

It may be noted that three lower level staffers posted at the Kalva octroi collection post were suspended from service after being found involved in octroi evasion racket along with transporters. The detection was made by the AMC and his superiors during a visit to the naka in the dark of the night following allegations of an organised racket.

Source:TOI

The urban development minister, Joaquim Alemao, on Wednesday assured the legislative assembly that the government would not spare any
person involved in the various scams at the Corporation of the city of Panaji (CCP) and that "the guilty will be brought to book by filing proper cases in appropriate agencies of the government".

Replying to the debate on the demand of the directorate of municipal administration, Alemao said that the CCP's new commissioner, Sanjit Rodrigues, has asked for three months to verify facts in the issues of daily wage workers and the allotment and rent of shops and to streamline the functioning of the corporation. It maybe recalled that TOI first reported about the corporation paying salaries to ghost' workers on July 14.

Alemao said the commissioner has admitted that excess staff has been recruited without the permission of the government and that he has to carry out verification of the physical presence of the workforce.

Alemao said the commissioner also observed several irregularities in the allotment of shops, stalls, etc in the new market. "No proper record has been kept on what basis the allotments have been made. Therefore, he (commissioner) has proposed to undertake a fresh survey of shops, stalls and platforms and has requested three months to complete the survey and streamline the allotments," Alemao said.

The urban development minister also said that the commissioner has observed irregularities in the collection and disposal of garbage by employing private contractors. No tenders have been floated before signing of MoUs for collection of garbage and for transportation of garbage. Even though there was a crisis of garbage collection, after making emergency arrangements, it was the primary responsibility of the CCP to follow codal formalities. It has been observed that important clauses of the agreement have been tampered with. This has to be reported to vigilance department, Alemao said.

He added that irregularities mentioned in the report of the commissioner indicate loss of revenue to the CCP. "After going into details of the irregularities, a need to fix responsibility is of utmost importance so that this type of irresponsible behaviour does not spread to other municipalities," Alemao said.

Source: TOI