Gurugram: CM’s flying squad busts illegal call centre in Udyog Vihar Phase 5

Gurugram: The chief minister’s flying squad busted an illegal call centre in Udyog Vihar Phase 5 on Thursday

Gurugram: The chief minister’s flying squad busted an illegal call centre in Udyog Vihar Phase 5 on Thursday. The call centre was allegedly involved in duping US nationals under the garb of providing them with technical support, police said.

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According to police, the CM squad received a tip-off on Wednesday about an illegal call centre operating from the third floor of a commercial tower in Udyog Vihar. A police team patrolled the area and raided the premises on Thursday night. They found 18 men and four women present on the floor, of whom 14 were calling potential customers abroad and offering them technical support services.

Owners Shashank Rathod (32) and Abhishek Pandey (26), along with manager Vivek Shinde (25) were arrested from the spot. They lived in a rented apartment in Sector 39, and hailed from Ahmedabad in Gujarat.

On being questioned, the owners revealed that they were operating the call centre for the last 30 months, Inderjeet Yadav, deputy superintendent of police (DSP), CM’s flying squad, informed. The owners changed their location over five times since 2019. “The employees were paid ₹30,000 per month, along with incentives. They targeted individuals who watched porn and had accounts on such sites,” he said. He further informed that most of the employees were from Gujarat.

DSP Yadav added that the call centre sent pop-ups and messages containing viruses to computer systems of US nationals which locked their screens/browsers. “They also threatened victims saying they will be booked for child pornography and that their bank details have been leaked. They convinced them that their bank balance is no longer secure, and took remote access to their computers through UltraViewer. The call centre then charged the victims between $200 and $1,000 to fix their system . Transactions were made through gift cards and Google pay, among other payment methods,” he said.

Rajiv Yadav, assistant commissioner of police, Udyog Vihar, said that the owners were unable to produce the company’s registration certificate, license from the department of telecommunications, or mode of payment and source of customers. “The total amount of money involved in the fraud will become clear after thorough investigations. The office was taken on rent for ₹2.5 lakh a month,” he said.

A case was registered at Udyog crime police station under sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 75 of the Information Technology Act. Police said six laptops and several mobile phones were recovered from the call centre.

Police have busted 16 illegal call centres since January this year.