Date:29/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/29/stories/2008112960250300.htm

Tamil Nadu

Tricksters find old people a soft target

Tricksters move around banks, targeting gullible old people, writes
L. Srikrishna

Tricksters, it appears, are now targeting senior citizens coming out of banks after withdrawing cash or other valuables. A couple of such cases have come to light in rural pockets, according to police.

Recently, a trickster relieved an old man of Rs. 15,000. The man was about to leave the public sector bank at Vadipatti in his moped, a youth asked him whether a currency note lying on the ground was his. When the old man bent down to look for the cu rrency note, the trickster took away the cash bag kept inside the tank pouch and escaped on a two-wheeler waiting nearby. The old man had lost the money sent to him by his son in Dubai.

No cameras

An investigating officer said that absence of surveillance cameras at banks proves to be advantageous to the offenders. The tricksters enter the bank as any other customer, sit next to people, preferably the gullible old people, who come for depositing/withdrawing cash or pledging jewels, to pick their target.

In another incident, a grocer from a village near Alanganallur, who had withdrawn money from a bank, kept the cash in the side box of his two-wheeler. When he was about to leave, he stopped to answer a call on his mobile phone. Even as he was talking, an unidentified person lifted the cash from the box and vanished without the victim knowing it. He realised that the cash was missing only after reaching his shop. Preliminary enquiries revealed that some one who had the mobile number of the grocer might have called him just to divert his attention.

While admitting that there was no surveillance cameras in banks, a senior manager of a public sector bank said that they had armed security personnel at the branches. Based on reports of their security officers, the bank branches were identified as high risk and low risk, he said.

However, a police officer said that presence of armed security guards or watchmen was not sufficient. Criminals were not only organised but also familiar with technological advancements.