Credit Card Fraud Costs Banks Lakhs 

          New Delhi – April 30, 2003 – Twelve persons including employees of a few posh South Delhi pubs were arrested for conniving with miscreants involved in manufacturing counterfeit credit cards and cheating banks to the tune of Rs.45 lakhs.  Manak Garg, the mastermind who earlier worked for a computer company and his two associates Sharif Ahmed an Ajay Taneja had been initially arrested by the Delhi Police.  Later, three pub employees have been arrested besides several other shop-owners who had connived with the trio to cheat banks.  Garg told the police that he had come across a Thai and a Nigerian national who had introduced him to the business of manufacturing counterfeit credit cards.  He then roped in Ahmed and Taneja.  The three visited posh south Delhi pubs and enticed cashiers and employees of these establishments to join them.  They would visit these pubs with a skimmer – a sophisticated equipment for recording electronic data.  Whenever a customer used his card to settle the bill, the card was passed on to Garg who captured the card’s data on the skimmer, which was subsequently downloaded to Garg’s laptop and onto counterfeit credit cards,” he explained.  They then contacted various shopkeepers who agreed to prepare fake bills charging the counterfeit cards.  “When the money came from the bank, the shopkeepers kept 20-25 per cent of the charged amount and passed the rest to Garg.   The police have recovered 20 counterfeit credit cards, a floppy drive, 2 skimmers, a decoder, a laptop and three floppies from Garg.  

Hindustan Times – May 1, 2003

Paris Meet / Franco-US Working Group Set Up - G-8 Leaders Focus on Biometrics 

          Paris – May 5, 2003 – The U.S. Attorney-General, John Ashcroft was in Paris for a meeting of the Justice and Interior Ministers from the world’s most industrialized nations, a month before the G-8 takes place in France.  The meeting focused on the increasingly important field of biometrics, seen as vital in fighting identity fraud, often used by international criminal gangs and terrorist networks.  Security forces will soon be able to use iris scans and other unfalsifiable material to make tamper-proof passports and identity documents.   Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French Interior Minister, announced the establishment of a Franco-U.S. working group on biometrics. 

The Hindu – May 6, 2003

Bulletproof Cover for Venkateswara Temple

              Tirupati – Following the Akshardham incident, the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) administration has taken several steps to tighten the security at the hill shrine.  The temple administration has held discussions on Wednesday with the Godrej company for installing a bullet-proof glass around the Tirumala temple.  TTD’S chief security officer E. Damodar said he had suggested to the Godrej company to develop a new concept to install bullet-proof booths resembling the Mahagopuram and Ananda Vimanam without affecting the ambience or causing inconvenience to the pilgrims. 

The Statesman – May 9, 2003

Crime-speak goes Hybrid  

            New Delhi – May 8, 2003 – Criminals have their own in-group language, consisting of a few exclusive words and phrases usually with differently assigned meanings.  A gang of robbers arrested from north-east Delhi have developed an argot that is an admixture of three languages – Arabic, Urdu and Hindi – to avoid detection while they communicate within the group.  The hybrid language they use would confuse the victims and would yield no clue about their identities.  A sentence like ‘al khawa tum tazhiray muskin’ means “lock all the occupants of house into a room.”  “They had framed several such sentences which had specific meanings relating to their actions.

The Times of India – May 9, 2003

Food for Thoughts

 If you let yourself be absorbed completely, if you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh
(1906-, Author)

***

 Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.

Robert F. Kennedy
(1925-1968, American Senator)

***

Thoughtful acts which we do for our fellow man.

Adolfo Prieto

(1867-1945)