Techie turns credit card crook 30 Aug 2008, 0624 hrs IST,TNN
HYDERABAD: The Task Force police apprehended a techie who used his skills to cheat many by withdrawing money from their credit cards through fraudulent means. Suggishetti Venkata Naga Rajesh, 27, is the proprietor of Pragathi Enterprises and Tanmayi Enterprises in SR Nagar. On Tuesday the Task Force officials raided his flat at Gagan Vihar, Begumpet, and seized a car, laptop, scannercum-printer , fake driving licences , PAN cards, credit cards obtained in a fraudulent manner, gold jewellery and 10 cell phones.
Rajesh, a native of Eluru town in West Godavari, finished B Com (computers) at KAHL Degree College in 2002. After finishing the course, he enhanced his software skills by learning software like Visual basic, VC++, Oracle, SAP, .Net, Java, core Java, 2D and 3D animation. Rajesh worked as a faculty member at various institutes in New Delhi for four years before he came here and settled down in April 2006. In the city, he started a software company Dhanush InfoTech at Shyamlal Building, Begumpet, and designed database management software for various business establishments like Blue Fox, Minerva, Chutneys and Intelli Group. According to Task Force DCP V B Kamalasan Reddy, Rajesh used his 'soft skills' to gain money in illegal ways. To begin with, the accused started a direct sales agency Pragathi Enterprises and Tanmayi Enterprises at SR Nagar.
By taking up freelance work from various registered direct sales agencies, who get credit card promotion works from various banks, Rajesh exploited loopholes in the system for wrongful gain. Rajesh then gave advertisements in newspapers and appointed four telecallers and an office boy. The telecallers used to target credit card holders . They called on the phone numbers in yellow pages and those found on a website, and enquired whether the creditcard holders needed credit cards of other banks. "Once a customer shows inclination, Rajesh used to send one of his employees to collect all the particulars of the person, including the details of the existing card," Task Force inspector V Shyam Babu said. Using this method, Rajesh collected credit card particulars of 140 persons in the city and chose a few high value credit cards for cheating. After the selection of 'targets' , Rajesh used to take a house on rent in an upmarket locality, call the call centre of a particular credit card customer , request for change of the address of the original cardholder to his temporary rented house, by furnishing the personal details of the card holder and with that he obtained new credit cards of his 'targets' .
Once he obtained a card, within two days he used to withdraw the cash up to the credit limit. Rajesh also took personal loan in the name of the credit card holders and received the demand draft at the changed address. After encashing it, he used to vacate the house immediately. "He used to collect passport size photos of unknown persons from photo studios by paying huge amounts, make calls to the banks for requesting change of address from the SIM cards purchased on fake names," Shyam Babu said.In the last one year, Rajesh cheated 12 persons of Rs 21 lakh. The accused along with the seized property were handed over to the Begumpet police for investigation.
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