Fake call centre busted in Noida, 8 men arrested for cheating US citizens

The suspects used to cheat people and make USD 3,000-4,000 per day, which roughly translates to ₹ 2.22 lakh – ₹2.96 lakh, said police.

Eight people, who allegedly cheated US nationals of approximately ₹6-7 crore by pretending to be officials of an investigating agency and threatening to link their names with drug cartels, were arrested during a joint operation conducted by the Noida police and the department of telecommunications, (DOT), Government of India, on Wednesday morning.

Police have recovered ten computers, one laptop, one printer, ten headphones, one internet router, four hard discs, 16 RAM, 99 letterhead pads and six mobile phones from the suspects. (Sunil Ghosh)

Kumar Ranvijay Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police, Noida, said the suspects operated from an office in Sector 62. “Around 4am on Wednesday, a team from Sector 58 police station and DOT conducted a search at the office and arrested eight people,” said Singh.

The suspects have been identified as Sumit Tyagi (25) and Rahat Ali (28) from Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad; Arun Chauhan (24) from Hapur; Vishal Tomar (24) from Noida’s Sector 39; Keshav Tyagi (24) from Meerut; Prashant Lakhera (24) and his brother Satyendra Lakhera (26) and Sunil Verma (25) from Panna in Madhya Pradesh. Prashant and Satyendra are the cousins of the mastermind of the racket Vinod Lakhera (35), who is on the run.

During interrogation, Singh said, the suspects revealed they mostly targeted Americans to escape local police’s surveillance.

“The suspects were in contact with some US based vendors, who provided them data of people allegedly involved in the use of drugs. The suspects targeted such people through a mobile application and sometimes, identified themselves as investigating agency officials or someone close to the agency. They told the victims that they had information of them buying drugs from California or Mexico. Since drug use draws strict punishment in the United States, some people got scared when they received such fraudulent calls and fell for the trap. The suspects then tricked the victims to pay gift cards worth USD 100-150 (between ₹7,500- ₹11,000) or threatened to link their names with some drug cartel and jail them,” said Singh.

Rajneesh Verma, assistant commissioner of police, Noida said the suspects then encashed the gift cards into Indian currency using a website.

“Sometimes, the suspects also took the victims’ mobile phones and computers on remote access and fraudulently withdrew money from their accounts. They used to cheat people and make USD 3,000-4,000 per day, which roughly translates to ₹ 2.22 lakh – ₹2.96 lakh,” he said.

The suspects said they had taken on English names to make fraudulent calls.

Police said Sumit Tyagi identified himself as Rick Allen from Santa Clara city in California; Arun Chauhan identified as Jack, VIshal Tomar as Henry, and so on and so forth.

Rahat Ali alias Wilson said he joined the company after watching an advertisement six months ago.

“I joined the company and realised that this was a fraud. Since I had no other job, I continued this,” he said.

Police have recovered ten computers, one laptop, one printer, ten headphones, one internet router, four hard discs, 16 RAM, 99 letterhead pads and six mobile phones from the suspects. Police said they are yet to find out the total number of people the gang has cheated.

A case has been registered against the suspects under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) of the IPC and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act. The suspects were produced in court and sent to judicial custody.

Police have advised job seekers to verify a call centre/company’s credentials before joining them.