CHANDIGARH: There has been no let-up in cheating cases from in and around banks in the city. Fraudsters duped gullible people of their hard earned money eight times in last two months.
In most of the cases, the accused targeted illiterate people around public sectors banks in sectors 7, 26 and Burail, Manimajra and Industrial Area, Phase II. The modus operandi was to lure people by offering them a share in their unaccounted money. In 70% of the cases, complainants said they met people in the
bank who offered them good profit if they deposited their stolen money in their account. They handed them money wrapped in handkerchief, only to find blank papers in the size of currency notes in them. In maximum cases, police failed to get pictures of the accused from
CCTV footage as they committed the crime far from their range or hid their faces.
Relatives of Kamodh Kumar, 16, one of the complainants, said he was duped of Rs 35,000 in a bank in Manimajra by two fraudsters in April this year. He had provided the pictures of accused to the police, but to no avail On the other hand, bank officials and police said precaution and awareness is the only way to keep fraudsters at bay. T PSingh, a retired bank manager, said, “The best advice is to not share your account details with anybody in the bank. In case of difficulties, take help from bank officials only, instead of asking strangers.”
Police officials said they have directed beat officers and area police to increase vigil around banks and
ATM kiosks. Bank officials have been directed to cover each corner of bank with CCTV cameras. Recently, bank officials caught
Afroz Alam, a Delhi resident, for duping a bank customer from an ATM kiosk in Sector 19. The accused allegedly duped three customers of the bank the same day on pretext of helping them while making transactions at ATM kiosks.
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