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Gang scamming Americans from Mohali call centre busted, 13 held
The gang had been defrauding gullible American people of $200 to $400 for “restoring their suspended PayPal accounts”, said Mohali police
Mohali police have unearthed a well-oiled nexus of techies who had been defrauding people living in the US of their hard-earned money through scam e-mails.
Sending false e-mails about suspension of their PayPal accounts, the gang, operating from call centres in Mohali, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, would make the gullible victims pay $200 to $400 to restore the digital payment service, minting close to ₹1 crore every month, said police.
A total of 13 gang members, including nine from various parts of Punjab and one each from Chandigarh, Jammu, Shimla and Delhi, have been arrested.
In Mohali, the racket was running from the third floor of the building at Plot Number D-176, Industrial Area, Phase 8-B, Mohali. A total of 12 computers and three mobile phones have been recovered from the centre.
Police are also looking into the gang’s network in the US, as the duped money was being transferred into an account in the US, from where it was further sent to the accounts of the fraudsters operating in Mohali.
Sharing details at a press conference on Monday, Mohali SSP Sandeep Garg said Rohit Chechi from Dera Bassi was the kingpin of the gang.
Apart from Rohit, those arrested include Darshandeep Singh from Dera Bassi; Kartik Sharma and Balwinder Singh from Hoshiarpur; Dev Kumar from Sector 84, Mohali; Mohit Kumar from Sector 85, Mohali; Irfan Bhatt from Kharar, Prashant Sharma from Sector 46, Chandigarh; Vikram Singh from SBS Nagar; Gaurav Sharma from Zirakpur; Yuvraj Salaria from Jammu; Davinder Kumar from Shimla and Naman Suri from Delhi.
They have been booked under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 66 of the IT Act.
Rajneesh Chaudhary, chief officer, Phase 1 police station, and his team busted the gang, said the SSP. The entire operation was carried out under the supervision of SP (City) Akashdeep Singh and SP (Traffic) Harinder Singh Mann.
Operated under the garb of fake logistics company
SSP Garg said the accused were operating a call centre in Mohali under the garb of a fake logistics company. Posing as employees of PayPal company, they would send fake account suspension e-mails to people in the US.
“The e-mail would direct the victims to contact a toll free number. The calls would land at the cell centre in Mohali, where the accused would persuade the victims to get their PayPal account restored by paying $200 to $400. Through this modus operandi, they had cheated countless people,” said Garg.
“Once the money was transferred to their account, they would snap contact with the victim, leaving them at a loss,” he added.
