4 arrested from call Noida centres over job, insurance frauds

Noida: Police arrested four people on Friday and busted two fraudulent call centres that allegedly duped people by promising them jobs with private airlines and facilitating insurance policy maturity payouts, officials said on Saturday

Noida: Police arrested four people on Friday and busted two fraudulent call centres that allegedly duped people by promising them jobs with private airlines and facilitating insurance policy maturity payouts, officials said on Saturday.

There were 25 NCRP complaints against both these portals, police said (Photo for representation)

According to police, the action followed an investigation into complaints received through the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCRP).

“One call centre, located in Sector 2, promised jobs as ground and support staff with private airlines and collected ‘processing’ fees from jobseekers. The other call centre, operating from Sector 6, was cheating people by offering insurance claims, credit cards, debit cards and other financial services. There were 25 NCRP complaints against both these portals,” said additional deputy commissioner of police (Noida) Manisha Singh.

Police said two men — both aged around 32 — one from Ghaziabad and the other from Delhi, were arrested from the Sector 6 call centre.

Police added that the suspects frequently destroyed mobile phones and SIM cards used in the crime and also deleted chats and other digital evidence. Police also seized a laptop, three keypad mobile phones, one smartphone, 17 ATM cards and a cheque book from their possession.

A case has been registered under Section 318(4) (cheating) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 66D of the Information Technology Act.

In the Sector 2 operation, police arrested two suspects — aged 28 and 26 — residents of Noida’s Sectors 31 and 37, respectively.

According to police, the gang procured jobseekers’ details from online portals and contacted them. Later, they allegedly sent fake appointment letters and collected money before cutting off communication.

Police said the suspects regularly destroyed the SIM cards used in the fraud and procured new ones in the names of other individuals, often by paying them a small amount, to evade detection. More than 15 complaints linked to the gang have been registered on the NCRP portal from different states, police said.

Police recovered two computers, five keypad mobile phones, three smartphones, a pen drive and five SIM cards from the Sector 2 call centre.

“These individuals have been operating fraudulently from various locations and engaging in cyber fraud. We suspect they defrauded people of lakhs of rupees through multiple bank accounts. All identified bank accounts will be frozen, and action will be taken against any other individuals found to be involved during the investigation,” Singh said.

A case has been registered under sections 318(4) (cheating), 336(3) (forgery) and 340(2) (using a forged document or electronic record as genuine) of the BNS, along with Section 66D of the Information Technology Act.