Increasing fraudsters in the south

Sethuraman N R

Chennai

September 10th, 2007

For the last over three weeks, news have been floating about traders in the
south being cheated by fraudsters. After having gypped the Tamil Nadu market,
fraudsters are now on a cheating spree in Kerala. Two traders from Kerala have
lost around Rs 4 lakh in a week's time.

The latest to join in the list is Ansar from Infosight Systems, Calicut.
"A person called Arvind Kumar aged 55-60 came to our shop on 16th August
and claimed that he owned a company called Kumar Trading Company and needed few
laptops. He gave me his visiting card and confirmed the order on 18th August for
three laptops, two ranging Rs 50,000 and one ranging Rs 40,000 by paying an
advance of Rs 1,000. We promised to deliver the laptops on 25th August and stood
by our words. He gave us a banker's cheque (equivalent to a demand draft). We
deposited the cheques after Onam and after two days received a call from the
bank saying that the cheque was a fake one. After lot of examination, it was
found that cheque had been redesigned using a computer and we had lost around Rs
1,40,000. Immediately we filed a case against the culprit in the nearby police
station," said Ansar.

After the police made some basic enquiries, it was learnt that the person
came to Calicut a month ago and rented a place for Kumar Trading and Co. He had
paid an advance of Rs 10, 000 to a hotel where he stayed and used that as
address proof for getting mobile and landline connection to his shop.

His mobile phone is currently switched off though his company's landline is
still ringing. Part of his face was captured by a digicam when he enquired for
web-cams at a dealer outlet. "That photo was sent to me for identification
and we have sent his photo to all dealers in south and a few friends in north. I
request my friends to help me find the fraudster," implored Ansar.

Sharing his thoughts PK Harikrishna, President, AKCMADA said, "These
culprits operate professionally and it is really tough for partners to track
them down. Traders must be united and help to book the culprits. If they have
any doubts about customers, they must cross check and only then deal with
them."