4 held for duping US citizens over cheap airline tickets in Delhi

When any traveller enquired about details of travel plans from US airlines on Google, they would come across the website made by the suspects

The Delhi Police crime branch has busted a fake call centre operating from Netaji Subhash Place in northwest Delhi that duped United States citizens by claiming that they would sell them airline tickets on the cheap, officers aware of the case said on Tuesday, adding that four people involved in the racket have been arrested.

Using fake toll-free numbers, tele-callers at the call centre then lured the victims by offering them cheap air fares. The booking of tickets was done using Dass’s bank account. Thereafter, they cancelled the tickets without informing the clients, with the money refunded to Dass’s account, police said. (Representational image)

The accused were identified as Shantanu Mathiyas, 39, his brother Swapan Mathiyas, 36, Pankaj Kumar, 37, and Virender Kumar, 38. A fifth accused, named Rohit Dass, operates from the US, the officials said.

“The call centre was raided on late Monday night and 18 computers, four mobile phones, one laptop and other equipment used for running the centre were seized. Apart from arresting the four, our team also took legal action against 20 supporting staff, who worked as tele-callers, IT experts, team leaders and call quality experts,” said special commissioner of police (crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav.

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Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Sanjay Bhatia said upon interrogation, the arrested men revealed that they developed a travel website, and whenever any traveller enquired about details of travel plans from US airlines on Google, they would come across their website.

Using fake toll-free numbers, tele-callers at the call centre then lured the victims by offering them cheap air fares. The booking of tickets was done using Dass’s bank account. Thereafter, they cancelled the tickets without informing the clients, with the money refunded to Dass’s account, police said.

Officers said they are still probing how many US citizens were duped by the gang.