CBI asks UK-based payment facility to freeze the accounts used by the racket

CBI investigates illegal Nashik call centers that conned UK residents, freezing accounts and arresting key suspects involved in fraud and data breaches.

MUMBAI: As part of its investigation into the two illegal call centres in Nashik which conned United Kingdom (UK) residents of crores of rupees, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has written to a UK-based international online payment service, to freeze the accounts used for the fraud. CBI officials said that last week the agency also wrote to the online service asking for details about the funds allegedly parked in the gang’s accounts.

CBI asks UK-based payment facility to freeze the accounts used by the racket

As per CBI officials, the accused made the victims pay them through online payment systems and the money was transferred to accounts managed by their gang. The money was then pooled into accounts of the gang’s UK-based members, the agency officials added. The CBI has informed a Thane special court hearing the case about its letter to the UK-based authorities of the online payment system.

So far, the CBI’s probe has revealed that the syndicate’s conspirators operated from Nashik, Delhi, and the UK to orchestrate the fraud. Operators in the illegal call centres would impersonate insurance agents and government authorities and make the victims pay for “non-existent insurance policies” for their television accessories.

CBI officials said the call centres in Nashik were operating under an alias of M/s Swagan Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Following source information, the CBI had registered a case on Thursday against several accused persons–unknown public servants and others–who were allegedly involved in the fraud.

As per the CBI’s FIR the accused had allegedly set up a ‘command centre’ in a bungalow at Trimbak Road in Nashik, and from there they would monitor the call centres’ fraudulent activities on a daily basis. On Saturday, the agency arrested the two key accused brothers, Ganesh and Shyam Kamankar from Thane, for allegedly operating the racket. The duo had been remanded to the CBI’s custody till Monday by a special CBI court in Thane.

The Thane court on Monday further extended the arrested duo’s custody till September 18. Their lawyer denied allegations against them, claiming that the Nashik call centres were authentic and that what was deposited into the company’s accounts were legitimate service charges from UK citizens.

Investigations have revealed that the call centres were allegedly being run as Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) units, which are third-parties hired by companies to offer non-core business functions like customer support, accounting, or IT services. CBI officials said, “The accused could not provide any agreement with any company to suggest that their firm was working as a BPO unit.”

The CBI investigation revealed that the accused had collected sensitive financial data about their victims including credit/debit card information. CBI officials said this violated the UK’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a law which defines rules regarding the collection and handling of personal data.

On Saturday, following searches at various locations in Nashik, Kalyan (Thane), the CBI had last week seized incriminating digital evidence, records related to the fraud, and ₹5 lakh unaccounted cash. Among the evidence, the CBI also found data about the victims, fake insurance policy documents, eight mobile phones, and eight computer systems.

Investigations revealed that around 60 persons were employed at the two call centres, which used VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), spoofed numbers and fake documents to convince victims to share their credit card and debit card details. VoIP is a technology that enables voice calls to be made over a broadband internet connection instead of a phone line. A spoofed number is when someone uses caller-ID-spoofing to display a fake phone number on the recipient’s phone. Agency officials said that the victims would then be made to pay for “non-existent insurance policies”.

Recently, the CBI had also busted two other fake call centres in the state. In August, the agency busted a cyber-fraud racket’s illegal call centre being run from a rented private resort at Igatpuri in Nashik. In July, the CBI had busted an alleged illegal call centre in Pune that was run by another cyber-fraud racket.