Mangalore: Online Fraudsters Attempt to Cheat Fr John Mendonca
by Melka Miyar
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (MB)
Fr John Walter Mendonca, the parish priest of Kayyar parish, located in Kerala but is under the jurisdiction of Mangalore diocese, shares his recent experience in which an apparently well-organized gang of fraudsters tried to trap him. Here he cautions everyone against falling a prey to the sweet-talking cheats' schemes and scams.
Melka Miyar, re-writes Fr Mendonca's experience for the benefit of the wide readership of daijiworld.com.
Mangalore, Sep 20: As technology has advanced and resultantly the globe has turned into a village, criminals take recourse to advanced techniques to cheat the innocent and the gullible. Besides, these international cheats do not appear to be bound by any constraints of geographical boundaries.
Here is a distinct case wherein these smart criminals appear to be targeting only priests. Many priests might have become victims of these fraudsters posing as priests in different parts of the world. Fr John Walter Mendonca, parish priest of Kayyar church in Kasaragod district, has been successful in ensuring the busting of such a case and the cheat is behind the bars now.
The story starts with a phone call from Canada. On September 8 night, Fr Mendonca received a phone call from a certain Fr Steeve Gollan, supposedly an Italian priest working in Canada. He said that their Benedictine sisters had adopted a boy called Nicholson, aged 21. He had travelled from Singapore and was now in India and facing some problems. The 'Italian priest' also informed that when the young man was travelling from Goa to Kanniyakumari, a stranger in the train gave him something to eat. After eating it, Nicholson lost consciousness and he was robbed of all his belongings, including his passport. To substantiate this statement, the so-called Italian priest wove so many sympathy-inspiring stories and finally sought financial help for Nicholson, so that he could safely return to New York.
At the same time, he obtained the bank account number of Fr Mendonca and assured that he would transfer US$ 7500 to his account. But Fr Mendonca objected to the transfer of foreign funds into his account and asked 'Fr Steeve' to instead pass on the money to Fr John Crasta, who hails from Fr Mendoncas' parish, but is currently in New Jersey for higher studies in theology. But Fr Steeve declined to go for this arrangement, offering some frivolous excuse. When Fr Mendonca contacted Fr John in New Jersey about this issue, he got the clear answer that this was nothing but part of online cheating. He also asked Fr Mendonca to be cautious about such operations.
In the meantime, Fr Mendonca surfed the Internet for information on Canadian dioceses and searched for the address given by Fr Steeve. But since it was not found, Fr Mendonca came to the conclusion that it was a cheating racket.
The next day Fr Mendonca even made enquiries through the e-mail and phone calls with various individuals and US consulates and embassy about the stranded boy Nicholson. From all this, it became clear that it was a ploy for deception.
Fr Mendonca, therefore, was determined to have Nicholson, the so-called youngster, nabbed, well before he could cheat anyone else. Immediately he visited Kumbla police station and alerted circle inspector Ranjith about the cheating case. Finally, the discrete and quiet operation started. The priest turned into a detective to bust the fake priests' racket.
As part of this mission, Fr Mendonca managed to get Nicholson arrive at the Kayyar parish by an autorickshaw and meet him in his office. Fr Mendonca 'assured' him that everything had been 'arranged' but on condition that Nicholson should first speak to the US consulate in Chennai. First he was reluctant to speak, but when the official came on line, Nicholson spoke to him rudely and picked up an argument.
Then Fr Mendonca spoke to US consulate personnel and confirmed that such a person from the US had never travelled to India. Realizing that his game was up, Nicholson started distracting the attention of Fr Mendonca in various ways and got ready to rush back to Calicut on the pretext that he had to catch the night plane.
But he was caught by the police at Bandyodu on the way in accordance with prior arrangement. After investigations, it came to light that he was not even from the US, but from Mumbai. His confessed that his real name was Richard, son of Philip. He was taken to the court, where he was remanded to police custody for further investigations.
The priest is successful in seeing that the fraudster was caught. But the police have to go a long way to bust the larger racket since it is spread globally. 'Nicholson' alias Richard is only a front. The people behind this racket have to be tracked down, since it is possible that they have similarly cheated many other priests.