Man arrested for duping people with ‘magic pen’

NEW DELHI - A youth was arrested for posing as a bank employee and allegedly duping customers using a pen with a special ink that would disappear soon after writing, police said Saturday.

Neeraj Kumar Gupta, 22, a resident of Ghaziabad, was arrested by near Shalimar Bagh in Delhi.

According to police, Gupta and his associate Nidhi would contact people on the phone posing as representatives of HSBC Bank.

The accused would tell the victims that they could get a credit card with a Rs.300,000 limit by paying Rs.52.

The accused would go to the victim’s house and take a cheque from them after writing the name of the bank and the amount with the pen with the special ink.

They would then get the victims to sign the cheque with their own pen. The accused would then change the name of the bank and fill in the amount they desired, police said.

The police recovered Rs.50,000 in cash, three ATM cards and one ‘magic pen’ from Kumar.

The accused was held after a complaint by the manager of the Pitampura branch of the State Bank of Hyderabad, who suspected an account in the name of one Vijay Kumar was being used for fraudulent purposes. The bank’s suspicion was aroused when a cheque submitted by him was countermanded.

“Magic pens like these are easily available in the market and any customer can fall prey to such white collar crimes,” a police officer said.