Fake PMO website dupes over 200 entrepreneurs

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, January 19, 2015: Over 17 tele-callers to contact prospective clients and call scripts prepared with great caution, it seemed to be a well-operated call centre to convince aspiring entrepreneurs to sign up for government loans after an initial deposit of a few lakhs for their schemes. Gradually, the racket succeeded in duping over 200 innocent people on the pretext of providing them government loans.

 

The Crime Branch of Delhi Police busted a fake website of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) under the name ’Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Yojana’ and arrested its 43-year-old mastermind Sudipta Chatterjee on Saturday from Howrah in a joint operation with the West Bengal Police.

"The fake website was created with the aim of cheating people on the pretext of providing them loans for various projects and schemes," said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Ravindra Yadav. Twenty mobile phones, hard disks, internet dongles, cheques related to 43 bank accounts, fake project reports, incriminating documents along with 16 rubber stamps of government offices were recovered from Chatterjee’s possession.
 
 

Details of the server were obtained on the basis of the fake URL www.pmaygov. in after Chatterjee’s arrest. He was later produced in a local court and was brought on transit remand to Delhi. "Chatterjee hosted the fake website on a server based in the US. To confuse the users, the URL was a mirror website of a government page and was listed on priority with Google," he added.

"There were a few clauses about banking transactions which persuaded clients to maintain a specified amount in their account as security," Yadav said. The mastermind received signed cheques, ATM cards, Pin number of the accounts and asked clients to not avail of any net banking or telebanking facility on that account. He withdrew the security amount after these steps were completed.

Chatterjee’s associate, who was a web designer, helped him create other such domains like bharat-sarkar.in, govindia.in, CGTMSE-govt.in, CGTMSE-gov.in. He also created e-mail ids by the name of goi@developmentofindia.in and project@developmentofindia.in. Interestingly, he received a call from officials from nic.in who asked him to pull down one of the mentioned e-mails without bothering to register a complaint.

Chatterjee is a B. Com dropout who began a real estate business in 2002. He learnt the craft of e-commerce and telecalling while running the venture before moving to e-retail of herbal medicines and other fast-moving commercial goods. He decided to create the fake websites after failing in his business, the police said.

Chatterjee’s father holds a senior position in a West Bengal-based shipyard and is well connected with the influential, sources said.


Courtesy: Indiatoday