Fake call centres used for preying on victims

Over 200 complaints about several bogus call centres allegedly extorting money from the gullible on the pretext of recovering loans obtained through instant loan disbursal mobile applications have been received by the cyber crime police station since December last year, said officials

Gurugram Several bogus call centres that allegedly extort money from the gullible on the pretext of recovering loans obtained through instant loan disbursal mobile applications are mushrooming in the city, Gurugram police said, adding that over 200 such complaints have been received by the cyber crime police station since December last year.

38 people were held from an illegal call centre in Udyog Vihar in March after over 50 complaints were filed against them. (SOURCED)

Most of the victims targeted by the racket are those who took loans through Chinese apps and defaulted on payments, police said. In March, 38 persons were arrested from Udyog Vihar after police received more than 50 complaints against them.

Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Indivar, who goes with a single name, said suspects run call centres after hiring young men and women for a good salary. “The employees of these illegal centres are trained to dupe such people, and are given a 25% cut from the money extorted on the pretext of recovering loans. They are also trained in morphing pictures. This has been going on since the past three years and the number of such gangs has increased multifold during this time,” he said.

Some of the gangs are operating from remote villages, making it difficult for the cybercrime to trace their locations and they keep changing their mobile numbers after every 100 victims, said police.

The police have received several complaints on how the victims, who had taken loans from 35 apps were being blackmailed into paying up after their morphed nude photographs are sent to them or their relatives on WhatsApp.

ACP Indivar said most of these 35 loan apps are Chinese applications could be downloaded only through URLs sent to a specific receiver and not on Play Store or App Store. “After a victim downloads one of the instant applications in question, the suspects get access to their photographs, contacts, and other personal documents saved on their cellphones. They also get access to the users’ emails and passwords and start using this data to dupe them,” he said.

In over 20 cases involving these apps, police said the suspects transferred money from their victim accounts to theirs and withdrew the amount from ATM kiosks in different cities so as to evade identification.

“The suspects would get the details of their victims on their WhatsApp the minute an account is created on the loan app, including app user ID and password,” the officer said.

The employees of the illegal call centres would then hack into the cellphones of the victims and gain access to their personal documents; morph their photographs and send them to the victim and also their relatives to extort money. “Many victims were blackmailed into paying up even after they repaid the loans,” Indivar said.

Police said a majority of these call centres were busted in Udyog Vihar and Sohna Road and the kingpins are former employees of BPOs with at years of experience in the sector.

“They call around 700 people on a daily basis to extort money from them. The gangs are expected to have duped people of tune of ₹10 crore in the past three years. They made a windfall during the pandemic as many people lost jobs and wanted money in a hurry to meet their household needs,” said the ACP.

Police said their teams are conducting regular searches on receiving complaints and have arrested 50 people this year for running these illegal call centres. Also, investigation is on to determine whether there are more such call centres operating within the city.