Kadugodi Police & Cyber Crime

Recently, we came to know about a fraudulent website that claims to sell Nokia cell phones for throw away price, and it can only be purchased online using credit cards. As dutiful citizen four of P9 members went to Kadugodi police station, to alert the cops about possible Internet scam. Indians usually have unknown fear in meeting police, and we are brought up listening to dialogues like “how lowly and immoral this person is….he has stepped the doors of police station….no one in our lineage has stooped to such low levels of going to police station” …four of us mustered all courage and decided to go to Kadugodi police station….someone reminded us tht recently the police were under tremendous pressure to find a nagging criminal and they just arrested few youth who entered the station to give some complaint….and given the recent IISC attack….we could be unnecessary victims…but anyway we thought such things should not deter the dutiful law abiding citizens of this country……


Scene: Kadugodi police station
It’s a vast spacious compound, with a small dusty red façade. A constable was lazily leaning against the wall and looking at us…we gave a smile and thought he would inquire “what’s the matter?” hmmm…he did not speak anything and we did not want to report such a intellectual finding to a mere constable…..we went inside….the first room had few wooden tables…possible taken from ruins of Tipu sultan’s palace….a person seated on the chair was intently looking at few documents and making notes…….did not bother to see four able, young and imposing men walking deep into the station… the second room had lot more table and chairs and had “what we can interpret as jail” ..it also had a small computer room with a lady operator moving her finger all over the keyboard rapidly…and behind her is seated a thick mushed person….we thought they r using some complicated imaging s/w to figure out the identify of most wanted criminal….i just wanted to c what it is?..how it works…may be I can offer some imaging expertise….before I could peep in, a voice asked …..”yes hey who r u ..what u want?” …all four os us tried to explain him the possible internet scam…..certainly we moved him…not tht he appreciated us social responsible initiative…just tht he was completely disoriented and confused as to what the case actually is….he then tried to understand the situation clearly …so he asked us questions ….

Police:Ok…can u tell me in short..the scene of crime…place of crime,, victim of crime….time of crime..then we can talk about other details…

P9: aaaaa…place of crime…we looked at each other….place of crime?..its on Internet……

Police: (quite amazed) oooo!Internet…..hmmm… so what is the crime..
P9: sir! Somebody is trying to cheat people…we suspect this website(http://www.nokiaind.com/) is fraudulent…its not Nokia’s official website….

(Sudden interruption..)
Police: ok tell me Victime of crime…who lost the money…how much?
P9: None…atleast none of us….we already suspected it to be false…
Police: None?…if u did not lose money…why did u come here…none of u r victims….
P9: true! …but we want to alert u…someone else may lose?
Police: quite annoyed and confused….hmm…ok wait outside…talk to sub-inspector…..

As we were moving out, I peeped in the computer room to see the operator working in MS-Word……hmmm…after waiting for 10 mins…another constable came….he aske dus in Hindi….tell me whats ur problem..He just could not believe that ppl can come to police station and alert them about possible “mis-happening”……..he almost told us.. ” if none of u r victime…then whats ur problem…why the hell r u guys here…eating our time” …this constable seem to be more inquisitive than the other..he again enquired us from the beginning…..and he asked

Police: how did we come to know of such a website…..
P9: “got a mail”…..
Police: from whom
P9: from a friend
Police: who sent him..
P9: We understood his motive and said some unkown guy sent him……..
Police: ok…where did u get the mail..
P9: in our inbox:
Poloce: where is it?
P9: in our office computer..
Police: where is ur office?
P9: In whitefield…..
Police: where in Whitefield?
P9: behind ITPL…
Police: aaaaaaaaa!…so u got it in ur office which is in whitefield….actually this case shud be referred to ITPL police,…this is Kadigodi police….He was gleaming…as though he has successfully cross examined some criminal lawyer …..
P9: no internet is available all over….we came to nearest police station…our house is in kadigodi…
Police was insisting that we should go to ITPL station….

It took us a very loong time and effort to meet the SI. He was very decent person. He confessed his ignorance on the toipc and requested us to report the same to bangalore Cyber crime branch.He said, he would contact the Cyber branch and pass on the information;We left the station and planned to send a email complaint to cyber crime office...something never tht materialised...

Baptizing the group ……“Stirring the Hornet’s nest”

We are into a new project and that is to give a identity to ourselves, a group of 20+ ppl…all from the same institute, stretched out on mother earths lap…It all started with a simple job of opening a G~ group. Someone asked us to suggest a name….prompt came 2 names…..X and Y…each with solid backing by small disjoint subset of ppl….Supporters of X andY tried to persuade the rest to vote for their name with claims that it truly reflects our identity…certainly hornets were off the hive buzzing allover…
Mails started flooding the inbox, each suggesting new names, some with justification of what is means and others looked a expression of heightened mental activity….and some others were mutated versions of previously suggested names. After a week of intense and aggressive peddling of the issues against all the odds, the bureau embraced a name that allegedly had a mystical origin. No one could explain on how /who coined this word….and what it means….hmmm after much deliberation a meaning was interpreted out of it…the name is Platform9 or P9…I just love this word and I need no explanation for what it means…tough I am quite happy with the interpretation tht I suspect to be after thought.