Police on Sunday said they have arrested 21 people, including a woman, for allegedly running a fake international call centre in west Delhi’s Naraina and duping citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) by impersonating as officials of the country’s revenue and customs department.
The police have recovered 34 computers along with accessories, optical fibre routers, LAN servers, Wi-fi routers, Wi-fi-switches, mobile phones, incriminating evidence of foreign payment gateways, fraud bank accounts and data of lakhs of UK income taxpayers.
Deputy commissioner of police (west) Urvija Goel said the call centre had been operating since February this year. The racketeers duped UK-based citizens of their money by claiming that discrepancies were found in the audit of their income tax. The number of UK-based citizens cheated and the total money the gang has earned through the illegal business is being evaluated, she said.
Goel said the employees at the call centre in Naraina industrial area approached UK-based citizens through phone service over the Internet (VoIP) and posed as HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, United Kingdom) officials.
Police said the call centre was raided on June 3 after the Naraina police station received information. A team was formed and 21 employees at the centre, including a floor manager, two supervisors, and 14 agents were caught.
{{/usCountry}}Police said the call centre was raided on June 3 after the Naraina police station received information. A team was formed and 21 employees at the centre, including a floor manager, two supervisors, and 14 agents were caught.
{{/usCountry}}During the interrogation, the DCP said, the frauds revealed they used illegal techniques, VOIP calling, by passing the legal International Long Distance (ILD) Gateways, thus causing wrongful loss to the government exchequer. They used costly software and cheated UK-based citizens on the pretext of income tax frauds and violations of government regulations by impersonating as HMRC officials of the UK, said Goel.
“These fraudsters are suspected to have links abroad who helped them by providing data of international citizens and also assisted them with international payment gateways,” said the officer.