MUMBAI: Three persons, including a Nigerian, were arrested by the Powai police on Friday for duping a shop selling mobile phones by using international credit cards.

They were caught when they went to the same shop for the second time in less than three days.

According to the police, the accused knew that the payments made through international credit cards were cleared after more than 24 hours and they used this lag to dupe a retail chain.
On Wednesday, four persons, including two Nigerians, visited

The Mobile Store at Marol Maroshi in Andheri and bought an i-pod and three mobile phones worth Rs85,547 using credit cards.

The amount didn’t get credited to the shop’s account and manager Ketan Bareya alerted his employees, who got the accused arrested when they tried to dupe them the second time.

A total of 11 international credit cards of several banks were recovered from the trio - main suspect Iyo Kayode (30), a Nigerian, and co-accused Mukesh Atiya (27) and Kalpesh Kachariya (21) - both graduates and residents of Goregaon. Police are looking for their fourth accomplice, Steve Watson — a Nigerian.

The police have booked the trio on charges of cheating, forging and common intention under the Indian Penal Code - they have been remanded in police custody till June 19.

“On Wednesday, two youths came to the shop and selected an i-pod and three mobile phones. After selecting the items, they called two Nigerians who were waiting outside the shop and Watson made the payment through a credit card which he claimed was his,” Bareya said.

Bareya said when the money wasn’t credited into this account even after a day, he alerted his employees. “A day later, the accused again called up at the shop to enquire whether we had any costly mobile phones. They then visited the shop, selected a few mobile phones and placed the credit card for payment. The first two cards declined payment. Not letting them get the whiff of our suspicion, we made them wait in the shop and informed the police,” Bareya said.

About 20 branches of The Mobile Store in the city were duped by the accused. “Nigerians were involved in all the fraud transactions and they had duped the store of Rs15 lakh over a month or two,” Bareya said.

“Atiya, who owns a mobile phone shop in Goregaon, befriended the Nigerians this year when they visited his shop. The Nigerians offered him a mobile phone for every con,” said senior inspector Rajdoot Rupwate of the Powai police station. Rupwate said Atiya sold those handsets at his shop.

Sub-inspector Sanjay Joshi said while Atiya and Kachariya finalised the deal, Kayode and Watson paid using forged credit cards.

“According to the banks’ rule, if a person shops for over Rs10,000 on credit card heshe has to submit an identity proof to the shop. We are verifying whether the cards recovered are actually owned by someone living outside India. Investigations are on to find their involvement in other such cases,” said Joshi.


By V Narayan