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Credit card scamster says he did it to pay
By: Lajwanti Dsouza
August 25, 2003 |
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| Amit
Tiwari |
Amit Tiwari (21) had to only take on three different
identities, open three websites and crack credit
card codes to earn a whopping Rs 9 lakhs in
just months.
After months of pursuit, Tiwari was finally
nabbed by the Santa Cruz police on Friday and
booked for cheating.
But Senior Inspector Kishor Patil says the booking
him for cheating is is hardly adequate for the
magnitude and complexity of the crime. The son
of a former defence official, Tiwari simply
told the police that he did it all to pay his
capitation fees. But the police don’t
believe him, as he is already a second year
engineering student with Bharatiya Vidyapeeth,
Pune.
Part of a hacking community, Tiwari used his
expertise to carry out a huge e-scam.
Tiwari, the police have found out needed money
to fund his extravagant lifestyle, which included
frequent partying and buying expensive gifts
like laptops for friends.
Even on the day of his arrest, Tiwari had come
down to Mumbai from Pune in an chauffeur-driven
Maruti Esteem and checked into The Orchid with
his friends.
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He is: Amit
Tiwari, a 21-year old second year student
of computer science at Bhartiya Vidyapeeth,
Pune, and the son of a retired colonel.
His crime: Tiwari stole
credit card numbers, then created fake
IDs, opened three bank accounts and conned
CC Avenue, an e-commerce
firm, of Rs 9 lakh.
Status: In jail. Cops
suspect Amit used the money to fund a
lavish lifestyle.
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E-scamster’s
Net gains
College student Amit Tiwari was arrested
by the Santa Cruz police for using credit
card fraud to dupe an e-commerce firm
of Rs 9 lakhs. Lajwanti D’Souza
explains the youngster’s ingenious
modus operandi, which flummoxed
the police
Online payment method
1. During normal online transactions,
a buyer types in his credit card number.
2. The website in turn forwards the details
to an e-commerce gateway for verification.
3. After validation, the gateway company
deposits the money into the website’s
account.
4. The gateway gets the money a month
or more later, from the buyer’s
credit card account.
Tiwari’s trick
1. Tiwari registered with CC
Avenue, an e-commerce company as a merchant
account holder (see glossary below) in
November 2002. He used the CC Avenue’s
credit card processing services for his
website, www.mafiaz.net.
His transactions with the company were
clear till February 2003.
2. From April onwards, the e-commerce
firm started getting charge-backs (see
glossary) from customers who said they
had never transacted with Tiwari. Tiwari
had taken on the identities of his customers
and purchased mafiaz.com services with
credit card details he found on the Net.
He was both the buyer and the seller.
3. In June 2003, Tiwari again signed up
with CC Avenue, posing as a Sachin Deshpande
and Jeevan Palani, who owned www.infocreek.org
and www.ewebsitertarter.com
respectively. Later he also began
transacting as Shoaib Sharif.
4. He then found their credit card numbers
and made more purchases with the help
of all the websites. CC Avenue deposited
the money made from the purchases into
Tiwari’s accounts. He made Rs 9
lakh in the bargain.
How Tiwari was trapped
Vishwas Patel, CEO of CC Avenue,
and the Santa Cruz police hatched a plan
to lure Tiwari to the office. The e-commerce
firm deliberately held on to Rs 40,000
that Tiwari was to receive as Shoaib Sharif.
At the appointed time, Sharif walked into
the CC Avenue office in Santa Cruz to
collect the cheque. The firm’s staff
recognised Sharif as Tiwari and the police
immediately arrested him.
The police
Investigating officer Mohan Mane
from the Santa Cruz police says that there
are several hackers like Tiwari. Mane
was to leave for Pune on Monday for further
investigations. Senior Police Inspector
Kishore Patil says that since the charge
backs are from abroad, it will take a
while to complete the probe.
“Besides, there is no proper legislation
to reign in such fraudsters. Which is
why we have booked him for cheating and
as an accomplice in a crime,” said
Patil.
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| Vishwas Patel |
Vishwas Patel,
CEO of CC Avenue
The police station did a wonderful job
in nabbing Amit Tiwari from our office
as well as apprehending two of his accomplices
from his hotel room. The Information
Technology Act was passed by our legislators
in a hurry during the dotcom boom. There
was no consideration of the practicalities
of online electronic commerce. Credit
card fraud is not even covered by the
act. If you could go through it, you will
find that 75 per cent of it speaks only
about digital certificates.
Glossary
* E-commerce: Electronic commerce
is the buying and selling of goods and
services on the Internet
* Merchant account: A
bank account that allows a merchant to
accept credit card payments from customers.
It is an integrated method for authorising,
processing and settling credit card transactions.
When the customer wants to pay by card,
a card reader is used to scan the card.
This information is transmitted to the
bank through the merchant account service
provided. The bank then secures the funds
and makes the appropriate transfers.
* Chargeback: When a
credit card customer successfully disputes
a transaction on the bill. Disputes typically
arise from the customers’ dissatisfaction
with the merchandise or services. |
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2003