Nigerian gang cheats Left Trade Union leaders of £300

Arijit Sen , CNN-IBN
Posted on Feb 09, 2008 at 17:07 | Updated Feb 09, 2008 at 23:49

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New Delhi: Indian comrades wanted to participate in an international global warming conference but ended up being cheated of 300 pounds.

Meet P K Ganguly and M K Pandhe - both Left trade union leaders, both deeply concerned with global warming and now more recently both feature in the long list of victims of the Nigerian e-mail scam - better known as the ‘419 scam’.

This is the invite that got the Centre for Trade Unions in India all excited so that decks were cleared for Ganguly to go to London and present a paper on global warming.

But the so-called conference turned out to be a con job and has left the torchbearers of the downtrodden poorer by 301 pounds or Rs 25,000.

Pandhe says, “Everything they showed us appeared to be genuine but later on we realized we were cheated.”

"Our friends in London told us and we found out that they are an international gang based out of Nigeria," Ganguly says.

John Mukapa claimed to be the conference chairman and the subjects appeared legitimate but a journey to London remained elusive as the promised ticket to fly never arrived even though the CITU was ready to roll.

The comrades are not only red faced and very angry they now want justice against cyber crime and want the Ministry of External Affairs to step in for help.

"We will be very careful now. They are targeting us and if necessary we will involve the Interpol," says one comrade.

Though doubt remains whether the Interpol will listen to this demand to launch a hunt for Dr Mukapa what is certain is that the red team will now think twice before they shell out the green stuff - at least on the net.

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