New Delhi: A fraud call centre in central Delhi which was being used to dupe British citizens was busted last week with the arrest of two people, police said on Wednesday.
Deputy commissioner of police (central) Sanjay Bhatia said the operators at the call centre, which was being run from two offices in the Gagandeep building in Rajendra Place, posed as UK tax department officers to cheat people.
Bhatia said two men identified as Parvinder Singh,36, and his relative Pankaj Kapoor,40 have been arrested. At least 13 men and six women were working at the call centre.
The DCP said Prasad Nagar police station was informed about the call centre on November 7. A police team raided two offices on the sixth floor of the building and caught the employees while they were calls to the UK.
“They were making and receiving calls over the internet through their laptops. One person, whom we later identified as Parvinder Singh was supervising the operations there. He was also making the calls. We found out that they were posing as UK tax department officials and cheating people,” said Bhatia adding that police are probing how many persons have been duped so far.
After the raid on November 7, police had registered a case of cheating the following day and started probe. DCP Bhatia said police found Singh was running the call centre with his accomplice Pankaj Kapoor, who was arrested later.
{{/usCountry}}After the raid on November 7, police had registered a case of cheating the following day and started probe. DCP Bhatia said police found Singh was running the call centre with his accomplice Pankaj Kapoor, who was arrested later.
{{/usCountry}}“Our probe revealed that the two got the contacts of the UK residents from different websites, social media companies and other fraud call centres. They had set up the call centre about one and a half years ago. They recruited employees through advertisements in newspaper and other means. They ran the call centre discreetly between 1.30 pm and 9.30 pm under the cover of a travel agency,” the DCP said.
Singh’s employees would randomly call the UK ciitzens and tell them that they were calling from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and warned them of dire consequences if they would not pay their tax dues immediately, Bhatia said.
They would receive money through online transactions in various accounts. Police said they suspect Kapoor of running Hawala transactions.
Police recovered Rs 19.64 lakh in cash and 32 laptops apart from other equipments that was being used to run the call centre.