Kolkata: City call centre girl pulls off $4000 cyber fraud for 'fun'

[ 2 Sep, 2006 1131hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

KOLKATA: Sulagna Ray hardly looks like a criminal. But both the detective department and the CID were hot on the trail of this 23-year-old call centre employee. She was arrested on Friday morning from her Behala home for using credit card details of US consumers to buy goods worth $4,000 (Rs 1.8 lakh).

Sulagna has been charged with fraud and cheating. She has “confessed” but claimed that “she did it for fun and didn’t intend to cheat anyone”. A city court has remanded her in police custody for 12 days.

"A California-based firm, Syssoft Corporation, informed us that they do e-commerce in Kolkata through a portal, calcuttaweb.com. It was flooded with complaints about fraudulent purchases being made through this site during July-August. We were also told that all these purchases were made through credit cards of US residents. The American firm had to pay compensation to all the credit card holders," DC (DD) Gyanwant Singh said.

Sulagna, who has just completed her diploma in fashion designing from NIFT, works in a Salt Lake Sector V call centre — Jaishree Infotech. Her call centre does the back-end operations of another e-commerce site in the US. "Her job involved selling Dish TV to US clients. While doing this, she gathered information about the credit card numbers of some of these clients. She then used these card numbers to make purchases through calcuttaweb.com," said a senior officer.

Sulagna made 52 purchases on the internet, some using her laptop and some from cyber cafes (she never used her office computer). Forty-two items, worth about Rs 1 lakh, were delivered to her home. These included an air-conditioner, microwave, cosmetics, jewellery, saris and even chocolates.

For the detectives, tracking her down wasn’t tough. Calcuttaweb.com, which has an office in Kolkata, provided them with the details of purchases made. "The IP addresses were all logged. Moreover, the delivery challans gave her game up," an officer said.

Sulagna's mother Nivedita, the police said, should have known what her daughter was up to. She earned only Rs 8,000 but was splurging. However, they did not question her mother, who is ailing. Her father Niladri, who worked in a Haryana-based firm, is dead.

Meanwhile, in another e-commerce fraud case, detective department officers arrested the owner of Mumbaibased e-portal NS Shopmart. Sidhartha was picked up from Dadar for cheating Supriyo Ray, a Barasat resident. Supriyo had purchased an LCD monitor from rediff.com for Rs 15,000. A carton reached his home a few days later but it was stuffed with paper. The police later found Sidhartha’s portal made the transaction through rediff.com. He was brought back to Kolkata.

Kolkata: Satyam dreams big in Kolkata

[ 1 Sep, 2006 1939hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

KOLKATA: Satyam Computer Services on Friday assured the state government that its Kolkata plans are on track and it will soon start construction at its proposed facility at Salt Lake's Sector V.

"Satyam chairman B Ramalinga Raju promised us on Friday that construction on the 2.77-acre plot allotted to them at Sector V will start after the monsoons," state IT minister Debesh Das said.

"Raju also said that the company will hire 800 associates in the first phase," the minister added.

Raju, who is also chairman of Nasscom, was in the city on Friday in connection with a programme organised by the eastern India regional council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

However, Das could not elaborate on the built-up space that Satyam would create at Sector V. The foundation stone for the project was laid by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in February.

"Raju did not ask us for additional land when we spoke on Friday," the minister pointed out. Sources said Satyam has received the necessary clearances for starting construction at Sector V.

In July, Satyam senior vice-president V Murali had told TOI that operations at Sector V would start by October 2007. Murali had then said that Satyam would develop around 300,000 sq ft at Sector V in two phases.

During the first phase, 120,000 sq ft would be established, he had added. In the past, Satyam had said that 2,000 associates would be employed at Sector V once the facility was complete.

Last year, Satyam officials had visited Rajarhat and Bantala with the objective of establishing a larger presence in Kolkata. However, the high price of land at Rajarhat had come in the way.