How to get an NGO Blacklisted/banned? Any pointers? Was scammed by one a week back.

[foadbear]

Hi everyone. I have a query. I am hoping someone can share some insights on this.

I was frauduelntly scammed of money (well, six digits), a week back.

After getting my credit card details, a scammer was able to tranfer the funds to a bank account. Well, I didnt tell the card details to anyone. I just did the mistake of revealing the OTP. The scammers not only had my credit card details but also told me the exact reward points that I had, which made me believe they are calling from bank.

The transaction was done from my credit card and using a popular payment gateway, linked to the scammer's bank account.

I was in a bit of shock the first day, but then I calmed down, had some scotch.

The scammer didn't know that the person he scammed, would be able to track the money to the exact bank account. One of the things that I am well versed in, is hiding digital footprints to game google search algorithm. Seems years of applying elbow greese really helped me on this case.

It took me less than 2 hours to track where the money went, that was debited from my credit card. It's really interesting what we can do if we are genuinely motivated. I tracked the money to the exact bank account number and also to the city and branch of the bank where the bank account is.

Well, the credit card company didn't helped, they just said they are unable to dispute the transaction. No details were provided by them.

I also got a police compliant filed (e-fir) and got the bank account of the scammer into debit freeze by contacting the bank in which the scammer had the account. I told the bank that I have filed complaint with cyber crime portal as well have lodged an e-fir. The bank (of the scammer) did confirmed after two days that the money debited from my credit card, went into the bank account that they have. They also provided me with the transaction challan. However, they declined to divulge the account number details of the bank account in question.


Turns out, the scammer was putting the funds into an NGO's account.

It was a case on platter served to the police, by me. They were also quite astonished as to how I was able to track the money and got the culprits. I gave them the exact bank account details which they confirmed with the bank of the scammer.

After police pressed on the owner of the NGO, it was revealed that the NGO was contacted by a boy who promised to get the NGO some donations and in return for it, the NGO owner has to give 40% of the money deposited into the account to the boy.

Well, the NGO owner has agreed to return the money, but I want to pursue it further. The NGO owners are trying to play it cool that they didn't know it was a fraud and they have no idea who gives the donations. They just do their charity work.

I think, the NGO owners, will try to get themselves off the hook since they are trying to put the blame on the boy who promised them to get donations and in return , asked for 40%.

I want to get the NGO blackilsted. I know it takes time but, its been a long time since I really wanted to pursue something with passion. I have all the documentary evidence and I want to pursue it.

If anyone has any pointers, kindly let me know.

It's been too overwhelming to get it all done alone.

I am also in the process of going to consumer forum to get compensation from my credit card company, but I have that taken care of.

Any pointers or any past experiences, kindly share so that I can drink scotch and thank you all

 

[skysat2005]

Connect with UP Police Economic Offences wing at uppolice.gov.in| Official Website of Uttar Pradesh Police | Police Units | Economic Offences Wing (EOW) | About Us

They have the jurisdiction to investigate private cases also which have repercussions on common people.

It's actually difficult to avoid getting into digital frauds when the scammers show that they have all your details with them however some general guidelines you can use are
- Don't have high credit limit on your cards even though banks sell high credit limit as a marketing tool. In fact you can manually reduce your limit thru net banking.
- Through netbanking, you can put a limit on your max. transaction amount in a single transaction or cumulative transactions per day.
- NEVER share any OTP with anyone. Since you shared the OTP, the bank has a reason to deny marking this transaction as fraud.

 

[foadbear]

Connect with UP Police Economic Offences wing at uppolice.gov.in| Official Website of Uttar Pradesh Police | Police Units | Economic Offences Wing (EOW) | About Us

They have the jurisdiction to investigate private cases also which have repercussions on common people.

It's actually difficult to avoid getting into digital frauds when the scammers show that they have all your details with them however some general guidelines you can use are
- Don't have high credit limit on your cards even though banks sell high credit limit as a marketing tool. In fact you can manually reduce your limit thru net banking.
- Through netbanking, you can put a limit on your max. transaction amount in a single transaction or cumulative transactions per day.
- NEVER share any OTP with anyone. Since you shared the OTP, the bank has a reason to deny marking this transaction as fraud.

This is very useful information. I had no idea about the Economic offense wing of UP Police.

I will get my money back from the scammer in a day or two since police officials want to nab the whole team of fraudsters.

I am not sure if the NGO onwers will be prosecuted but I just want to make sure that they do not get away with this. The lady is quite old and they cater to more than a dozen orphaned children. Well, I don't want to take away the shelter from them. But if I won't do anything to the NGO owners, I will end up thinking about it and adding it to my list of regrets.

I was logged in my mobile app at the same time when the scammer was logged in too. It's a gross violation of mobile app secuirty of the credit card issuing bank. Two people cannot log in from two different locations into the mobile banking app of any credit card/bank.
I have consulted going through consumer court too and I will pursue that case there.

The bank is not even responding to my emails now

I had a limit on my transaction but since the scammers logged in the mobile app of my credit card, they could change the limit in one click.

 

[foadbear]

Got a call from the cops as well as the owner of the NGO today.

Got my money credited back to my account.

The owner was saying to not take any further actions but I had so much anger that time, that I am not sure what to do.

She was telling me multiple times, how much she is respected in the city she lives and how she has received an award from governor too.

Well, I got my money back, I am not sure if I am ready to get NGO blacklisted and be the reason of taking away shelter from the 14 children who are living there.

However, I think that since I was able to track the money debited from my account, I got my money back.

What about the people who were robbed by these people. What about their money and what about the people who they will rob again.

I am quite divided on this issue and any inputs are welcome.

On one side, I want to teach them a lesson and on the other hand I also feel that if NGO gets blacklisted/closed, what will happen to the children who are living there.

 

[skysat2005]

...........................................
On one side, I want to teach them a lesson and on the other hand I also feel that if NGO gets blacklisted/closed, what will happen to the children who are living there.

You need to confirm first if this NGO lady is hand in hand with the guy who is duping people and showing the payment to NGO as Charity.
May be the lady is not aware if this money they are getting as charity is raised thru' illegal means.

Whaterver it may be, the robin hood, the brainchild behind all this scam, must be caught as he will continue the scamming, if not for this NGO.

 

[citymonk]

She was telling me multiple times, how much she is respected in the city she lives and how she has received an award from governor too

It is nice that you got your money back.
But you should certainly disclose the name of this NGO so others could be aware of these fraud makers.

Many NGOs is Bihar and also UP were sexually exploiting helpless orphan girls in orphan homes they run. Some one has to speak against these culprits other wise they thrive as they know people like to remain mum on such sensitive issues.

 

[foadbear]

You need to confirm first if this NGO lady is hand in hand with the guy who is duping people and showing the payment to NGO as Charity.
May be the lady is not aware if this money they are getting as charity is raised thru' illegal means.

Whaterver it may be, the robin hood, the brainchild behind all this scam, must be caught as he will continue the scamming, if not for this NGO.

The lady shrugged off her responsibilities and said that she was not aware of the fraud that was taking place. She called me yesterday and apologized multiple times, "Jo hua bhool jaiye and FIR wapas le lijiye".

The lady told me, that she asked her CA and that her CA said , " ye paise koi wapas lene nai aaega" . I found it quite pointless to argue with her since she was apologizing multiple times.

The SHO is giving out a press conference today. He was also not too eager to nab the culprits since he told me multiple times," bhali aurat hai, jaane dijiye sir. Paise dila denge hum aapke."

It was when I got the SSP of the city to take a personal interest, that the case got momentum.

It was a case that was handed on silver platter to the cops.

I do want to get the lady and the other people who are involved in the NGO to get some type of punishment.

The lady gave her signed checks to a person and that person used to withdraw the money.

She had an arrangement of 40% -60%. 40% will be left with the lady and 60% will be given to the scammers. This she herself admitted.

I don't think that there is even a remote possibility that the lady was not aware of all this.

 

[foadbear]

It is nice that you got your money back.
But you should certainly disclose the name of this NGO so others could be aware of these fraud makers.

Many NGOs is Bihar and also UP were sexually exploiting helpless orphan girls in orphan homes they run. Some one has to speak against these culprits other wise they thrive as they know people like to remain mum on such sensitive issues.

I was discussing with one of my friends yestrday and we both agree that we can't let these people go by just having them return what was rightfully ours.

Her charity had more than 15 lakhs donations in this financial year.

No audits, nothing. It feels like, everyone, from the BANK CC department, to the CA she hired.. everyone was in on the scam.

 

[Big Daddy]

This is classic racketeering. I do not think the NGO is registered. It is a scam with widespread participants that take commissions. When caught they will act innocent and return the money, but the scam will continue. Most likely law enforcement is also involved in a limited way.

Citymonk is right the girls may be used for prostitution to make additional money. First check if the NGO is legit because that itself may be a chargable offense.

 

[foadbear]

It took me less than a day to track the money as well as to track the details of the NGO. It is a registeted NGO, operating for more than 30 years in a district of UP, India. Has tie ups with NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) as well as CHILDLINE. It's registered under the socities act in Uttar Pradesh, isn't in the blacklisted NGOs, has three registered members and has also received award from the Governor of UP. Websiteof the NGO is hosted with godaddy and built on Wix.com platform. I won't be able to get the website down in time but I will make sure that I dispatch written copies of complaints to all the places who have the authority to investigate this further. A learned forum member, @skysat2005 told that there is an economic offense wing of UP, I will go to them too.

I did most of the tracking and an hour before now , the police team called me to share the account details because they are going forward with a press conference and they will show it as a proof. Because of the tracking I did, they have nabbed more than 4 people as of now, from two districts of UP and from Delhi.

I am pretty sure that if the cops pursue it further, they will unearth a bigger nexus. The scammers knew my CC details, even my mailing address.

I received call from a Karnataka registered number and I also tracked a person associated with the NGO who has worked in CISCO Bangalore for 4 years , in testing domain.

Cisco provides mobile security solutions for the bank's credit card division, I am not sure if wholly or partially but I have apprised cops of this information too.

And such is the confidence of these scammers, that after 4 days of me getting scammed, I received another call offering me a discount card from the same bank. However, I guess someone told the scammer that i have been scammed before so he cut the call in haste without telling me all the beneifts of the discount card, lol.

The owner of the NGO called me yesterday and was apologizing profusely and even told me that , " sir, mera CA bola ki OTP bata k hota hai transaction, koi paisa mangne nahi aaega."

If the owner gets un touched, I will divert my attention towards getting them prosecuted.

Maybe the whole nexus won't get busted , but I will be able to see myself in the mirror and say that I didn't gave up.

It's important for me.