7 held for scamming US citizens from illegal call centre in Agra

The Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday busted a similar scam in Agra and arrested seven people who were part of a nexus that cheated Americans by promising them to get their loans approved

There are numerous reports of illegal call centres and phishing gangs in India scamming US citizens, an issue that has even caught the attention of the federal agencies there.

The Agra police chief said the US embassy in Delhi had been informed about the development. “Details of the crime has been shared with the embassy, which will now find out the people who were cheated,” he added. (For representation)

The Uttar Pradesh police on Saturday busted a similar scam in Agra and arrested seven people who were part of a nexus that cheated Americans by promising them to get their loans approved. In return, the scamsters would charge anywhere between $50 and $100 for their ‘service’.

“In a joint operation, Sikandra police, SWAT and a surveillance team arrested seven of the accused involved. Police recovered nine computers, six hard disks and six phones from the accused,” said Agra police commissioner Dr Preetinder Singh.

“Shockingly, nearly 50,000 US nationals were duped over the past few years by such fraudsters who operated from UP and other parts of India,” said a senior police official privy to the investigation.

The Agra police chief said the US embassy in Delhi had been informed about the development. “Details of the crime has been shared with the embassy, which will now find out the people who were cheated,” he added.

The official said the call centre, which was later sealed, was operational at a building in the Shashtripuram locality under the Sikandara police station limits of Agra. The police identified the scamsters as Anurag Pratap Singh, Shivam Sagar alias Simmu, Ashish S Lal, Abhishek Chahar, Abhyudaya Faujdaar, William Das and Yash Parashar. Six computers and three laptops were also seized from the call centre.

Anand Shahi, one of the cops who busted the scam, said Anurag Pratap, the gang leader, revealed during interrogation that he arranged the database of US citizens’ personal details from two other persons. “Anurag Pratap and his team called their victims disguising themselves as US nationals. The callers were trained to sound like the Americans,” Shahi said.

He added the fraudsters were also suspected of having links with an international gang based in the US.