Cyber Crime observers are well aware of “Nigerian Frauds” where people from Nigeria cheat persons globally on false allurements. Exporters to Nigeria are aware from times immemorial that remittances from Nigeria are unreliable. Bankers refuse to finance exporters for exports to Nigeria.
Now it appears that Hong Kong is also becoming a country like Nigeria where criminals are opening bank accounts to commit frauds on the global netizens.
In one of the cases reported in India, an importer has been lured to transfer money due to the Chinese Company to an account in Hong Kong which happenned to be a fraudulent account.
It is also reported that Hong Kong is trying to develop “Secret Banking” on the Swiss Banking model so that tax evaders and criminals in the world can now switch their Swiss Bank accounts to Hong Kong.
In view of the above if any remittance is sent to a bank in Hong Kong, the remitter may find it very difficult to recover the money through normal legal course.
I therefore urge Reserve Bank of India to send an advisory to all Banks that any remittances to a Bank in Hong Kong should be subjected to a check on the authenticity of the recipient. The receiving Bank must give an undertaking that any customer recipient of a remittance from India is not a criminal and the remittance is not part of money laundering.
Naavi
