Conmen, over the years, have found innovative ways of duping companies and individuals. According to the Economic Survey 2005 by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 54 per cent of the respondent organisations from India reported having been victims of economic crimes over the past two years compared to 24 per cent reported in the 2003 survey. Additional Commissioner of the EOW, Sadanand Date, says that while the actual number of economic offences in Mumbai hasn't increased, financial losses have doubled. "The loss incurred due to the offences is directly proportionate to the state of the economy. A growing economy may report a similar number of cases as in the previous years, but their value would increase," he explains.

PICTURE SPEAK
DATTA CHOUDHURY CHOR POLICE Allegedly amassed Rs 5 cr from flat-owners of a police housing society with two retired cops.	JAYANAND NADAR SMS SHAM Said to have pocketed Rs 25 crore from investors, promising Rs 10,000 against Rs 500 in 16 months.

MOHSIN KHAN AIRLINE TRAINING FRAUD In 2006, allegedly duped about 200 people of Rs 1 crore promising to train them for jobs in airlines.	ODESY & QAMARJEHAN SHEIKH EMAIL FRAUD In October 2006, along with another man, Odesy lured youths with jobs in two UK firms through email conversations. They allegedly swindled Rs 20 lakh which was deposited in Qamarjehan's account.

UNKNOWN RACKETEER TICKET FRAUD Said to have used others' credit cards to buy tickets from Kingfisher Airlines, which suffered a loss of Rs 18 crore.	SANDEEP KANDALKAR CAR CON Along with five others, embezzled Rs 31 crore from investors in their bogus transport company, say police.

With new inventions have come new frauds. While cheating and forging is passé, the suave and convincing conman is using sophisticated technologies like the Internet and SMS to pull off stunts that are even more difficult to investigate. In the recent e-ticketing fraud, wherein Kingfisher Airlines was duped of Rs 18 crore last year, the first bungling happened on the day the system got operational in June 2005. Similarly, in an SMS con worth Rs 25 crore, two brothers commissioned agents to get them investors. Once the money reached their hands, the brothers disappeared. Pandit Durgaprasad Majumdar, the agent who unearthed the fraud, says the duo were middle-aged and suave. "Even a thinking person like me got duped. Only after my cheque bounced did I realise that they had fled with my money. I had to repay Rs 37 lakh from my own pocket to all the investors," he rues. Date has a new take on this phenomenon. "The Internet has replaced earlier ways of functioning. Similarly, Internet frauds are replacing other frauds," he says.

Often, the economic offender is an 'Insider'. "In most cases, the offenders are employees who have mastered their organisation's operating systems," says senior police inspector Vasant Dhoble. The PWC report identifies the conman as a male (in 100 per cent of the cases), a graduate or post-graduate between 31 and 50 years of age. Last year, the Mumbai Police also found many unemployed and less educated men indulging in economic crimes even as the number of Nigerian nationals involved in e-mail related frauds is on the rise.

Owing to the nature of such crimes, it is difficult to secure conviction for the offenders. Most cases come to light four to five years after the fraud has been committed, which makes it very difficult if not impossible to recover the embezzled cash. In 2006, an economic offence was registered against three retired police officers and one personnel of the Mumbai Police who had helped build a housing society for policemen in 1993 and then duped them of over Rs 5 crore. The accused-including the mastermind, retired additional commissioner Datta Choudhari-are yet to be brought to book. "While we are always solving others' problems, our own men fooled us," says retired assistant commissioner of police Vasant Shete.

The police face innumerable problems while detecting an economic offence. "In most cases, a complaint is registered with the police only after the complainant has exhausted all other means of recovering his lost money. Sometimes the case comes to light years later. By this time, the accused has changed his address, and spent all the money," says senior police inspector Vasant Dhoble. This is the reason why the recovery rate of the lost money is so low. Also, since these frauds involve extensive paperwork, the police find it time-consuming and cumbersome to get all documents together before proceeding with the case.

Among the economic offences, the maximum number of cases registered are banking-related, cheating or job racketeering. In 2006, the EOW registered 30 cases worth Rs 60 crore under banking fraud, 36 cases worth Rs 50 crore under general cheating and 28 cases worth Rs 2.5 crore under job rackets. Even housing-related frauds total up to a whopping Rs 27 crore. Recently, in Kandivli, the residents of the posh Benzer residential tower were duped by the builder who sold all the houses to several middle-class buyers.

However, owing to the increasing number of economic frauds, Mumbai Police are rising to the occasion by getting their personnel trained for detection of such offences. In the past one year, the police have conducted several seminars by the Reserve Bank of India, stock brokers and chartered accountants to understand the nature of the crimes. The Cyber Crime Cell also provides special assistance to solve economic crimes, as most of these include Internet transactions.

So, while the victims do the rounds of the courts in the hope of compensation, for perpetrators-equipped with technology, a crafty brain and a glib tongue-cash-rich Mumbai remains the ideal playground.

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