Somendra Sharma

Mumbai: An employee of a leading business process outsourcing firm in Goregaon has been arrested along with six others in connection with a credit card scam that may cost Barclays Bank lakhs of rupees.

According to police, the scam came to light some time last week when officials of Sparsh, the BPO that conducts credit card processes for Barclays, found that the credit limit of one of the bank’s customers, Santosh Raut, had been lowered.

The officials’ suspicion was aroused because a client’s credit limit is lowered only in rare cases.

“The credit limit is usually increased,” deputy commissioner of police (zone XII) Shivaji Bodhke said.

“On enquiry, they found that details such as residential address, mobile number, and other personal details of the cardholder had been forged.”

Suspecting foul play, the management approached the Goregaon (east) police station. Preliminary investigations suggest Barclays has been cheated to the tune of Rs44 lakh. Police believe the figure could be even as high as Rs1 crore.

On probing further, the needle of suspicion fell on a systems operator called Prakash Jadhav, who had been with the company from July 2007. When Jadhav was taken in for questioning, he confessed to his involvement in the fraud and also named six other partners in crime. Jadhav had got credit cards for these friends by fabricating information.

While Jadhav was held on May 1, the six others were arrested later. They have been identified as Haneef Zafar Sheikh, 28, Pravin Pujari, 21, Kishor Talreja, 34, Amit More, 26, Janardan Shinde, 36, and Dilip Bhoir, 40.

Explaining the gang’s modus operandi, Bodhke said Jadhav used several different tactics. In some cases, he used the names of genuine credit cardholders in the BPO’s system to give his accomplices cards.

This means, though two cards would be issued in the name of the same person, all other information like address etc would vary. He also got cards issued in fictitious names. He had even issued fake PAN cards to ensure there were no hurdles in verification. In return, Jadhav got a commission.

Jadhav’s friends used the cards to go on shopping sprees and splurge on luxuries. According to the police, they even connived with some shopkeepers to get bills and charge the bank though no items were bought. They made money out of this too.

“The case in which the credit limit of Raut’s card was lowered triggered the suspicion of the BPO management,” said Bodhke.

According to Bodhke, the bank has two customers called Santosh Raut. While one is a genuine customer, the other was conjured up by Jadhav and the card given to his accomplice.

"When he started defaulting on commissions, Jadhav decided to teach him a lesson and lowered his credit limit," he said. This, however, proved to be his undoing.

The DCP said they were trying to find out the extent of the scam and the damage. "So far, we have recovered Rs2.70 lakh from the seven accused in addition to nine fake credit cards, nine fake PAN cards, and seven mobile phones," Bodhke said.

When contacted, a spokesperson from Barclays Bank said it would be inappropriate to comment as investigations were still on. She, however, said there was no loss of customer data.

Source : DNA