Sumedha Sharma
Tribune News Service
Gurugram, September 2
In what has set the alarm bells ringing for the Haryana Police, a quaint village in Hodal block of Mewat seems to be emerging as the next Jamtara — a Jharkhand town notorious for cyber crime. Having adopted an organised syndicate model, over 200 youth of Ghaghot village in Palwal are committing ATM frauds across the region.
The issue has been brought to the notice of the state DGP by the police of various states, including Delhi, Rajasthan, Punjab and even Haryana.
Inhabited by around 600 people, the Meo Muslim village has at least one man from each family involved in the illegal activity. The syndicate deputes members to various cities having people with low-tech awareness. They either clone or swap ATM cards while pretending to help gullible customers inside teller machine booths. Within days, they decant the bank accounts.
Started by two-three families some 10 years ago when cards made advent in Mewat, this has now become means of mass livelihood. The fraudsters bank on either non-registration of FIRs or being booked under easily bailable sections like IPC 420.
There are many cases in Hodal itself where it takes years to register a complaint. Two such complainants have written to the DGP saying their FIR had not been registered even after almost a month.
The fraudsters are learnt to be computer-savvy and aware of the functioning of the ATMs.
A few villagers took to the activity about 10 years ago when a majority of Mewat people had problems in operating ATM cards. They would pretend helping people withdraw money and swap cards instead.
Those expert in the "trade" even impart coaching to youngsters to clone cards and violate machines.
While Palwal SP Deepak Ahlawat did not respond to calls, a senior official said, "The problem of this village is similar to several others in Mewat — residents support criminals. They obstruct raids, hide them and even go on to negotiate with complainants before the accused reach court. They don't use phone, which makes tracking them difficult. Most of the fraudsters operate outside the district and even the state."
Land of conmen
- Accused either swap or clone the ATM cards of gullible customers out to withdraw money
- Bank on non-registration of FIRs or charges under easily bailable IPC sections
- At least one member from each family in the village is involved in the illegal activity
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2YVB3v1
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