'Shillong city police acting tough against fraudulent sale'
FROM OUR STAFF REPORTER
SHILLONG, April 27: Probable deluge of fraudulent sales through TV channels and SMSs prompted Shillong city police to act –both in advisories and ground actions. A number of complaints have reached the police in the past couple of months about the type of fraudulent practices through the advertorials relayed through the TV channels and SMSs.
Although, there were only four official complaints in the past one month, there are many unreported cases due to the lesser amount involved in the transaction, stated a well placed police source, adding, the origin of the operandi has been tract as far as Uttarkhand. There were cases that the on-line customers received bricks and stones instead of the item that they have ordered.
“Yes it’s true that there are such reported cases and we are already in touch with our counterparts to il these elements”, stated the Superintendent of Police (Shillong city) Vivek Syiem on Wednesday, adding, “I take this occurrence seriously and people should not fall trap on such offers”.
Asked on the genuineness of similar offers by other online agencies, Syiem said that there has been no complaint so far, even as he underscored on the police impromptu action is to prevent the deluge of such cases in the coming days.
Already, the people involved in such unscrupulous deceitful practices have been rrowed down and it is expected that the newly created cyber crime cell of the state police will add more teeth to the process of investigation.
It may be mentioned that number of citizens has fallen victim to similar traps-coming through emails and SMS. They have deposited even lakhs of money in response to the mails, text messages and phone calls only to land up in a world of deceptive syndicates. The number of FIRs registered with the police has touched 20 in the past ten months.
Explaining that the TV channels or mobile phone providers are not responsible for such advertisements (carried out on commercial purposes), Syiem summed up by saying that public consciousness is more important to deter such fraudulent deals.