Laptop thief on the prowl in sub-metro cities

Posing as a genuine customer, a man named Sunil is on a
meticulously planned laptop robbing spree. This person hasal ready targeted small
cities like Nagpur, Indore and Bhopal. Though a case has been registered against
him at the localpolice station in Nagpur, he is still at large.

The IT reseller community in Nagpur has suddenly become extra
cautious while dealing with customers now. The reason is simple — some days
back, Nagpur-based Supra Computer Systems and Key Computers have seen two frauds
being done while purchasing high-end laptops.

"A guy named Sunil called up two to three times on the
phone and then visited us at our showroom to purchase Zenith Presidio Vu Laptop.
On his visit to the showroom on Saturday, 9th July, 2005, he saw the demo of
that laptop and selected the same and informed our staff that he will call back
tomorrow for final price and delivery.

On Monday he rang up like other customers, ordered for the
same Zenith Presidio Vu model and gave the residence address of one Sunil Balki,
B-12, CMPDI Complex, Jaripatka, Nagpur, and phone number: 9860321492. Heasked
our executive to deliver the same to his the brother at the said address, where
he had kept cheque payment for agreed amount of Rs 74,000," recollects,
Sunil V Manekar, Director at Nagpur-based Supra Computer Systems.

Giving another angle, Pradeep Bijwe, Police Inspector,
Sitawadi Police Station (Nagpur) explained, "The cheque of Rs74,000 was not
issued under the name of Sunil Balki, but bore the name of Amit Pazare. He has
criminal records and was alleged for forging some cheque at the office
approximately six months back. He is absconding since then. But when I showed the
picture to Manekar, he said that this was not the person who had visited the
shop."

Modus Operandi

As per his plans to create a good impression and recruit
someone for his bogus office, he puts an appointment advertisement in local news
paper saying - "Required Graduate (male) as Assistant Manager (7500),
Office Asstt (5000) for company dealing in computer hardware and electronic
equipment, based at Nagpur. Contact: Sunil, M: 9860321492."Candidates from
good social background with computer knowledge apply for the job, get
interviewed by him and are verbally appointed too.

He then visits the selected candidates' residence for
verifying the proper location of safely accepting the delivery and tells that he
wants to validate the residence of the candidate since material worth Rs 10 to
15 lakhs will be there in new office.

Simultaneously, he keeps dealing with different computer
showroom holders and specifically asks dealers to deliver the purchased laptops
on these newly appointed personnel's address with the bill raised on the same
name and address.

"As a vendor, we verify the authenticity of the local
address, and deliver the laptops after taking the cheque. The so-called owners
collect the laptops and vanish, all we are left with — is just a bogus cheque.
Just think of the poor can did ate, who was used in this fraud. This is not a story
from any film. This has just happened three days ago in Nagpur," headds on.

"As for as our information is concerned, the culprit has
so far stolen four notebooks and some other IT products, so he must be confident
by now and is likely to attempt again in some other city. From the modus
operandi, he should be from IT back ground, he is aware of various models and also
the internal trader norms / competition," Manekar adds on.

His main style is that he never buys anything from a showroom
like general customers, who pay some advance by cash, but ask the dealer to
deliver the laptops at some authenticated address. This is to assure the dealer
about the address of the delivery.

Even though the local IT dealer association, Vidharbha
Computer and Media Dealer Association has registered a case against the culprit
at the local police station, he still remains at large. The police are
investigating the case.

As a professional culprit, he is targeting all sub metro
category cities, where there are big pressures to sell more and local showroom
owners always look out for pushing products like laptops. Hence, showrooms from
other cities like Jaipur, Raipur, Goa, Aurangabad, Ahemadabad, Baroda and other
cities should be on high alert. Watch out for cheque from ICICI Bank account no
005901505408 (cheque book used in Nagpur frauds).

ZIA ASKARI