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Game of shadows fools the cash rich

Private detectives, who illegally procure mobile call record details, provide bogus reports to their clients for an exorbitant amount

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If you thought being a private detective involved stake-outs and discretely tailing movements of targets, think again. The Mumbai Crime Branch that recently busted a gang of detectives, who procured Call Detail Records (CDRs) illegally, had told the police that they fooled their clients and minted money by shadowing the person listed by their clients. As per the police, a large number of collegians too had used these services to spy on their partners.

A crime branch official, on the condition of anonymity, said that during interrogation of these arrested detectives it came to light that when a client approached them to snoop on their partner, the detectives would charge Rs 50,000 as the initial amount.

"The detectives used to demand a high amount for following the person listed by their client. The accused would then simply take the CDR and tower location of the person they were asked to follow and report how much time he/she has spent at a particular place. The CDR would reveal details of all incoming and outgoing calls. The clients were under the impression that these detectives work very hard and hence used to pay handsome amounts, whereas the CDR were available to these detectives for a much lesser amount of Rs 10,000. In some cases, the clients had paid as much as Rs 5 lakh. Most of the clients belonged to affluent families," said the crime branch officer.

"These detectives also hired men to gather photo evidence. CDR used to help detectives know the daily routine of the person they were asked to follow such as when do they leave, their train and office timings and when do they get home. So, once the pattern was known to the detectives, they used to list the numbers that were frequently being communicated with. They would then remove CDR of the other person and would check for their tower locations as well. If his/her's tower location was similar to the person that was being spied on, then it was quite simple for them to know about their regularly meetings. The detectives would then ask their men to keep a vigil on the person and click pictures so that it can be provided as proof to their clients," said the officer.

The police also learnt that these detectives would offer their services to top corporate companies. "Suppose if a top company official wanted to recruit someone for an important designation, then the company would take services of these detectives to get a background check done on the person to be recruited. The detectives used to give a proper report to the client along with their findings and conclusion," the officer said.

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