No fear of law, lure of lavish life drove execs to crime

Easy money, lavish lifestyle and trendy gadgets have lured professionals working in IT companies to the world of cyber crime.

Easy money, lavish lifestyle and trendy gadgets have lured professionals working in IT companies to the world of cyber crime.

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The recent credit card fraud cases reported from multinational companies, including WNS, Convergys and American Express, show that making quick bucks prompted the executives to take the illegal route.

Investigations revealed that a majority of the accused had never thought they would get caught.

Neelabh Shankar, accused in the Convergys credit card fraud case which came to light in September 2011, said, “It wasn’t easy to prove my innocence as I accompanied the main accused, Arti Gupta, to various places and accepted her gifts.”

Shankar, who was later freed by the Gurgaon police, said, “I never used the credit card but Arti used to send me gifts through online shopping sites, through which I was traced.”

He currently works as a systems engineer with Infosys.

Arti Gupta, who worked as a senior technical support officer with Convergys told HT, “I wanted to be rich. Asking parents for money was becoming tough. People working in BPOs carry the latest mobile phones and party on the weekends. I took to the crime as I thought I’ll never get caught.”

Singh, who is based in the US, said, “I knew I will not be caught. I was inspired by movies. I belong to a rich family and had the passion to use plastic money. I
liked to impress my friends and took them to hotels and pubs. I knew I was going to the US shortly and thought I’ll never get traced.”

Dr Brahmdeep Sindhu, senior psychiatrist at the Gurgaon civil hospital, said, “Peer pressure prompts people to take to such illegal activities. The youth wants easy money.”

“Such people have high level of anxieties,” he added.