Sin city’s tech edge

The IT revolution in Bangalore has an unwelcome side-effect rise in sophisticated electronic crimes

Sin city's tech edge

The IT revolution in Bangalore has an unwelcome side-effect rise in sophisticated electronic crimes

Gadgets and gizmos are the new weapons as crime in India's IT capital gets slicker and more sophisticated.
A police officer from the organised crime wing said that there's been a spurt in electronic crimes due to technology that's fast gaining ground even among criminals.

Phoney calls

He cited the case of a gangster who made ransom calls to a businessman from abroad. When the police investigated, they found that the call had been made from the city itself but with the SIM card of a foreign country.

Criminals' preference for Chinese-made mobile phones that come without a unique International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) code number makes it difficult for the police to trace calls.u00a0 IMEI is a 15-digit code which appears on the operator's network whenever a call is made.

Keeping pace

Joint commissioner of police (crime) Alok Kumar says that though the modus operandi vary, the crimes have not changed.u00a0 And however smart the offenders, they still leave some clue behind, he said.

Forensic Science Laboratory director Dr L Mohan says cyber laws were enacted following an increase in white-collar crimes.

Voice analysis, DNA finger-printing and brain-mapping are part of the tools investigating agencies use to counter tech-savvy criminals.

But pinning down a criminal is not easy in many cases due to jurisdictional problems.

One reason is that Bangalore is emerging as the fastest-growing city and criminals blend in with the migrating population. They evade the police by returning to their states without hours of committing the crime.

Recent crimes

Case 1: Gone in 60 seconds
A housewife in Frazer Town was duped of Rs 1.5 lakh through an online fraud.
A man claiming to be the manager of an online lottery told her that she was a winner and would get $1 million after she paid Rs 1.5 lakh as processing fee.
As directed, the victim, Afza, deposited the amount in a bank account but the money was electronically transferred to several accounts in minutes.
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Case 2: Speak no evil
Two men, pretending to be deaf and dumb, entered a jewellery shop in Ashok Nagar and handed over a letter to the shop-owner which said that the family was physically handicapped and they had no one to support them. They took Rs 50 from the owner. And also a diamond pendant worth Rs 1 lakh.

Case 3: Abracadabra
Ramesh Tulsiyan and Dinesh Kumar Bansali opened several branches of Tulsiyan, a company that promised to double investors' money, and disappeared with Rs 20 crore.
The duo initially did offer huge returns to investors to attract more deposits. But once they had made their money, they shut shop and escapedu00a0 without even paying staff they had recruited.
Police say, the drastic change in lifestyle and the economic divide created by the IT revolution is the biggest reason why people from socially and economically backward sections are taking to crime.

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