Sex, Lies and Cyber Crime
Source: www.gunaah.com
By Rahul Khilnani
Date: June 12, 2003
The Cyber Crime Cell of the Mumbai police has arrested P S Mitra for conning an Abu Dhabi resident, Vijay N, to the tune of Rs 95 lakh via e-mail.
Vijay became a victim of virtual reality and ended up paying a hefty price for it.
According to the police Mitra sent a mail to Vijay, under the name of Rita Basu, via the Internet after a brief chat session. In the mail Mitra, who acted as Rita, asked him to become her friend, which an unsuspecting Vijay readily agreed to.
Soon the two became good friends and Vijay received regular mails from Rita, who also introduced him to her friend identified as Ruchi Sengupta, who too is believed to be one of Mitra's creations. After a few days Mitra sent him a few nude pictures identifying them as those of Rita Basu and asked him to meet her at a hotel in Mumbai. Vijay reached Mumbai and went to the hotel but there were no signs of Rita and a frustrated Vijay left the city. According to the police Vijay stopped replying to her mails to which Rita threatened to commit suicide if he did not reply to her but Vijay decided not to reply and soon Rita's mails stopped coming in.
After a few days Vijay sent a mail to Rita but there was no reply and so her decided to mail Ruchi who told him that Rita had committed suicide and the Mumbai police had launched a manhunt for him. Fearing the trouble he had gotten into Vijay asked Ruchi to get him out of the mess. Ruchi, reportedly told him that she had hired a leading lawyer and asked him to transfer money to his account in the Chembur branch of the State Bank of India which he readily agreed to. Soon the demands for money started increasing on some pretext or the other and Vijay kept transferring the money to save his skin.
After a few days Vijay received another mail from a woman identifying herself as Dr Sudensha from Kolkata. Vijay who fell into the same trap once again and befriended Sudensha.
Sudensha after gaining Vijay's confidence told him that she was on her way to New York and wanted to meet him after the trip to which readily agreed. However within days Vijay received a mail from the New York police who reportedly told him that he was wanted in connection with the murder of Dr Sudensha. Vijay, thinking Ruchi to be his friend mailed her and asked her for help to which she asked him to deposit a whopping Rs 20 lakh in the same account and he deposited the money. This time too there were repeated requests for money and Vijay kept sending it.
However Vijay started getting suspicious and contacted the Mumbai police for help. He came to Mumbai and explained the case to ACP Modi who started investigations into the case after tracing the mails of Ruchi, Mitra, the Kolkata police and the New York police all of which were traced to Mitra's residence in Mumbai. The police raided his house and seized mobile phones, three computers, a scanner, receipts of fixed deposits and details pertaining to the case. Mitra has been arrested and remanded to police custody.
The cops are however puzzled by the fact that an educated man like Vijay could fall into the same Cyber Trap not once but twice. Mitra uses the following fake email ids: ritabasu@epatra.com, sudeshna@mail2doctor.com and nycpoliceus@usa.net
Original article: http://www.gunaah.com/drafts/article.php3?id=1131&name=SCOOPS&sid=14
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