E-Paper
Ludhiana: Illegal call centre busted, two women among 29 held
The Ludhiana police on Friday busted an illegal call centre and arrested 29 persons for allegedly duping several people, including foreigners, under the guise of technical service providers for multinational companies such as Apple and Microsoft
The Ludhiana police on Friday busted an illegal call centre and arrested 29 persons for allegedly duping several people, including foreigners, under the guise of technical service providers for multinational companies such as Apple and Microsoft.
According to police, the call centre had been deceiving people of huge amounts of money, making a USD 10,000 daily.
The arrested persons hailed from various states across India, including Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Delhi, and Punjab. Over the past one-and-a-half months, the call centre had been operating from a rented accommodation in Daad village in Ludhiana, the police said.
During the raid, the police seized 14 tablets, 34 mobile phones, 2 laptops, 1 scooter, and ₹1.17 lakh from their possession.
Commissioner of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu said that the police had been pursuing the accused for the past three months before finally apprehending all 29 members.
Sidhu said that other teams associated with the scam were believed to be operating from different parts of the country and the US.
The commissioner explained that the accused primarily targeted US citizens. A technical team, situated elsewhere, would send bulk pop-up fake warning messages to computers and laptops, deceiving users into believing that their systems had been hacked or were under attack. To resolve the issue, the accused would be provided helpline numbers posing as customer support personnel from Microsoft and Apple. They claimed to refer their case to the Federal Trade Commission of the US.
Another team of the gang, posing as officials of the Federal Trade commission, would then contact the people claiming that the victims’ bank accounts were at risk and that the involvement of bank officials was suspected.
“The accused would advise the victims not to contact their banks and instead instruct them to purchase e-vouchers worth USD 500 or more to secure their money. They would assure the victims that after verifying their accounts’ safety, the money would be transferred back into their accounts,” commissioner Sidhu said.
Police investigations revealed that after redeeming the vouchers, an accomplice known as Alex, situated in the US, would transfer the money to individuals named Cherry and a brother duo Sandeep Yadav and Santosh Yadav through hawala transactions.
Preliminary questioning identified Cherry and Paul as the masterminds of this operation, with the arrested accused functioning as their employees, receiving salaries ranging from ₹25,000 to ₹45,000.
An FIR has been filed against the 29 accused, as well as Alex, Paul, and Cherry, under IPC sections 420 (cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), and sections 66C and 66D of the Information and Technology Act at Division number 8 police station.
Most of the accused are between the ages of 20 to 25, having completed their school education. Some claimed to have initially believed they were employed by a legitimate call center but later realised it was a fraudulent operation. However, enticed by monetary gains and perks, they continued working for the scam syndicate, police said.
