It could not have got more bizarre. Criminals opting for newer methods to cheat and rob have taken many by surprise. In a recent incident, a man was duped of `4.5 lakhs, apparently with the help of a “magic pen”.
The police officer investigating the case has been quoted as saying that the pen is easily available in the market and if one writes in the reverse order, the pen absorbs the ink and leaves the paper blank.
Interestingly, this is not the only case of the kind. Investigative and detective agencies say that they get many cases like this one. Mahesh Parekh, from detective agency DM Barco, mentions a case that he got some weeks ago where his client was cheated of `2 lakhs. “This guy signed a cheque of `20,000, but a much larger amount was withdrawn from his account. After checking with the bank authorities, he got to know that the cheque had been fiddled with,” says Parekh and adds when the cheque was later procured, use of invisible ink was found on it.
Other agencies have got similar cases where official documents and cheques have been fiddled with. Detectives say that with the help of spy cameras or recorders, people with criminal bent of mind dig out details about a person, the property he possesses, documents and other things. “After knowing such details, it gets really easy for criminals to dupe people with tech gadgets,” says Ajit Singh, managing director, Hatfield Detectives Pvt. Ltd. He adds that the pen that absorbs the ink on writing in the reverse order is not yet available in the market. “But there’s another pen which has ink that disappears in a few hours of writing and that can be found easily,” he says and adds that many crimes were committed in the recent past using this pen.
There are others means used too for such forgeries. J.K. Kaushik, director of the detective agency J.K. Consultancy, forensic bureau, says that sometime back there was a case in which with the help of a certain chemical, the entire amount from a cheque was erased and a higher amount was filled in. “Since the cheque had the authentic signature, it was cleared. Later, when on complaint the case was investigated, the use of this chemical was found,” he says.
While detectives say that such cases have been on a steady rise, they also say these are committed by people who are close to the target. “One has to be very cautious in matters related to money,” says Parekh.