Gurgaon: Fake call centre busted, 10 arrested for duping people with job promise

The fake job racket was being run by a Mathura couple who is now on the run, the police said

Barely months after a fake call centre involved in banking fraud was busted, ten persons were arrested by the Gurgaon police for running another through which they duped people of large sums by offering non-existent jobs. Police said a case of fraud was registered against the accused in September, 2017 before the case was transferred to the cyber cell of Gurgaon police. It was the cyber cell which uncovered the racket.

Police seized a huge cache of IT equipment and mobile phones used for running the fake job racket (HT PHOTO)

Police seized a huge cache of IT equipment and mobile phones used for running the fake job racket. The racket, which was being operated for the last one-and- a-half years, was run by a Mathura-based couple, the police said.

Sumit Kuhar, DCP crime, said that the well-organised racket was run by Laxman and Simple and both are currently on the run. “Around 50 people were employed at the call centre, which was being operated without permission. There was no recording of calls and data and operators were given fictitious names to call gullible job applicants,” Kuhar saids.

Police said stolen data from a job portal was used by the call centre employees to reach out to candidates, who were promised jobs, interviews and locations abroad in lieu of money. In most cases, those promised jobs were asked to deposit 2-3 months’ salary as commission to the call centre, the police said.

The accused also used multiple bank accounts to siphon off money and hired people in a dubious manner. “Call centres seem to have become an easy way of carrying out frauds in Delhi NCR, be it related to banks, jobs and other financial transactions. There is a need for strict monitoring of such facilities by civil agencies to curb such crimes,” Kuhar said.

On questioning, the accused told police that every operator at the call centre was given 40 mobile numbers of job seekers. They were asked to call each of them and promise jobs, the accused said. They charged ₹1,000 to
₹2,000 as registration money and demanded large amounts in lieu of fake interview letters, which were deposited in banks through a cash transfer, the police said. The Gurgaon-based man on whose complaint the gang was busted said he had also been conned of ₹2.60 lakh after being promised a lucrative job.

Shamsher Singh, ACP, crime, Gurgaon said that the cyber cell of Gurgaon police opened an investigation on the complaint that the call centre was deceiving gullible jobseekers by making rosy promises. “After a thorough probe it was found that the accused were operating a well-established call centre out of Mohan Cooperative Industrial Estate in Delhi, near the Tuglaqabad Metro station. A police team conducted a search at the call centre during which it found a large number of people calling jobseekers. It was found that this facility was illegal and was engaged in defrauding gullible people”, he added.

Read I Gurgaon: Fake call centre busted, ex-bank staff among 3 held

The 10 accused have been identified as Mohan, Tushar, Mohd Daud, Durgesh, Raghu Singh, Sanjay Kumar, Shailesh Mani, Shiv Kumar, Kishan and Sushil Kumar. They are residents of Delhi and UP.

“It was a well-organised racket. Sixty CPUs, 60 LED screens, keyboards, mouse and other IT-related equipment were seized from the call centre. Forty seven mobile phones used by the accused to dupe people were also seized,” inspector Anand Kumar, in charge, cyber cell, Gurgaon, said.

In May, the cyber cell busted a fake call centre in Palam, Delhi. The accused then had used sensitive financial data of clients stolen from banks to carry out the fraud. They duped a large number of people by offering them credit cards and other lucrative schemes, the police said.