Case of Fraud on our Project

Article # 106
Dated: 18th February 2022

I could not publish the article yesterday because I arrived late from the office and I was tired like hell. I am going to share the reason in today's article.

So yesterday when I was about to leave my office as my duty time was about to end, I received a call from our security head. He asked me to visit our site office as a case of theft has happened outside our office. Someone has stolen a brand new car from a real estate agent outside his office. So he is asking us to check the footage on our CCTV camera.

I coordinated with my boss for permission and he permitted me to go over there and provide the required footage. When I arrived, I saw a cop along with the real estate agent. I took them to our CCTV monitoring room and provided the required footage. Unfortunately, the CCTV was not high quality as it provided a bit blurry footage when we zoomed in to identify the face of the person. But the real estate agent claimed he will take it to forensic and clear up his face so it will be recognizable.

I asked the real estate agent what happened? He told me that they put the ad on OLX of this vehicle as they wanted to sell it. This fraudster contacted me and we agreed on a deal. So we asked him to visit us and check the car. If he agrees after that he can provide us with the money and take his car. So he visited last Saturday and he provide us with the Pay order (Pay order is different than cheque as its confirmed payment). The fraudster was clever enough as he visited the time when banks were closed so they weren't able to verify if the Pay Order is legit or fake. They did the send the picture of it to a bank representative and he claimed that it looks legit but he couldn't verify the serial number in the system as the banks were closed.

So they trusted him blindly and let him drive the car away. Because they thought he would not fraud them as he was suited booted and even spoke a few English sentences with them. We Pakistanis, always get very impressed when someone speaks English fluently because we consider them more knowledgeable which makes me realize our inferiority complex. So it fooled them that's why we should never judge a book by its cover. But when they tried to deposit the Pay Order on Monday they were shocked to know that Pay Order is fake. They soon went to the Police station for registering an FIR. But hope the cops would be able to retrieve the car as it was worth 3.6 Million PKR which is equivalent to almost $21 K.

We checked the CCTV footage and find out he was not alone. He arrived in the taxi and the taxi driver also looked suspicious as he spend more than five minutes leaving the taxi. Also, we saw him meeting other four people who also got together on spot. Two of them arrived on the bikes while two were barefooted. So it looked like it was an organized crime and they worked all as a team. And I am sure it wasn't their first time as they looked very organized and they never showed any sign of fear which made me realize as everyone shows a sign of fear when they are committing a crime for the first time.

Anyways, I thought the person whose vehicle is stolen would be sad and angry but he looked very relaxed and he even joked with me. I thought I would have ended up having a heart attack if someone stole my car worth $21 K. 🤣 He was very relaxed which made me realize they are earning a lot of money that's why they don't even feel a thing after such a loss.

So I checked the footage with them for straight four hours that's why I felt tired and could not publish the article last night. He thanked me as I helped him retrieve the footage and he didn't expect that so he thanked me many times. And I was happy I helped him and I wish he would be able to recover his car and catch the fraudster so he can never fraud someone else again. We gave the cops enough clues and footage so it really depends on them if they are being able to solve the case.

I hope they would recover it and he even promised a party if they recovered the car. But the trouble is the car was not registered as it was brand new.

I hope you guys would also have learned two lessons from this article.

1) Don't judge a book by its cover and don't start trusting anyone on the basis of that judgment. Always check everything and every spot when it comes to money. Look into every detail and never believe in anyone's word. Don't trust anyone blindly.

2) Always verify the bank documents like cheques and Pay orders if they are legit or fake. Don't take anyone's word for it. Ask the banks to verify it in their systems. Don't take the decision in the hurry and don't take greed take away your conscience.

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