Five held in Rs 15.68 cr credit card fraud

B D Narayankar

Press Trust of India

Bangalore, Oct 28: Police today claimed to have
unearthed a major credit card fraud involving transfer of Rs
15.68 crore from foreign countries and arrest of five persons
of a private charitable trust.
"The four fradulently transferred funds to Salve Regina
Charitable Trust between July 1 and August 13 2010 from credit
card holders, mostly from USA and other foreign countries,"
DGP (CID) Shankar Bidari told reporters here.
Those arrested recently include the Treasurer, Trustee,
Secretary, and a man who designed the website to facilitate
fraudulent transactions, he said.
The woman President of the Trust was arrested on October 26
and remanded to police custody till Oct 29, Bidari said.
He said investigations revealed these persons transferred
money from 995 credit cards of foreign nationals to their
trust account through e-commerce gateway after downloading
card details from 'www.hidemyip.com' website.
The five also prepared fake bank deposit receipts by using
computers to lure people to deposit money with them, he said.
The trust, which took up programmes for the disabled and
old-aged, had obtained exemption under section 80G of the
Income Tax Act, 1961, Bidari said.
Bidari said police seized documents on purchase of 11
properties worth Rs nine crore in Bangalore East by the Trust
President in the name of the trust,besides three four-wheelers
and a car.
"We also seized hard disks and laptops and analysed calls
made by them and are verifying their bank accounts," he said.
Police also froze an account of Trust, in which they had
deposited Rs two crore, Bidari said.
He said the trust is being prosecuted for violating FCRA
provisions as it had not credited all foreign contributions to
the designated SBI account, as per rules.