Fake call centre duping US citizens busted; two held

The chief minister’s Flying Squad on Tuesday night busted a fake call centre, which had been operating out of an house in Sector 27 for the past two months. The

The chief minister’s Flying Squad on Tuesday night busted a fake call centre, which had been operating out of an house in Sector 27 for the past two months. The employees had been allegedly duping US citizens by posing as officials of US law enforcement agencies, threatening to cancel their social security numbers if they failed to pay a fine, said the police.

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According to the police, the call centre was duping people of hundreds of dollars. The police said that at least 1,000 US citizens are suspected to have been targeted by the call centre.

A case was registered on Wednesday at the Cyber police station under sections 420 (cheating), 120B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) and sections 66D and 75 of the IT Act, after which two of the owners of the fake call centre were arrested from the spot.

The suspects were identified as Anurag Tiwari and Kirti Kumar Keshav of Jind. The police said three people were running the call centre.All three had worked in call centres in Gurugram a few years ago.

The kingpin, identified as Lokendra of Ahmedabad, fled from the spot and teams are tracking his location for his arrest, said the police. The suspects were paying ₹2.5 lakh monthly rent for the house, the police said, adding that they recovered seven hard disks, the script meant to dupe US citizens, and computers from the spot. The suspects were produced before the district and sessions court on Wednesday.

The police said the confiscated hardware will be sent to a laboratory in Madhuban, Karnal, for forensic examination.

Harish Budhiraja, inspector, chief minister’s flying squad, said that there were 22 men and four women working as tele-callers at the call centre. The executives were given US citizens’ data, which the call centre procured from Ahmedabad.The executives used to make random calls to unsuspecting US citizens, informing them that their social security numbers are at the risk of being cancelled as they are “offenders” and they needed to pay a fine to ensure its continuation . “This call centre had a total of 30 workstations. The tele-callers underwent a week’s training to make calls to the US and a script was shared with them. They had also set up a toll-free number, which was shared with the victims,” he said.

The police said the payment was generally through virtual payment gateways, credit and debit cards, gift cards, iTunes cards.

The police said the exact number of victims and the total amount of money siphoned may be higher than what they anticipate. “We are also getting a forensic audit of the seized property. The same group were running call centres in Sushant Lok-1 and Sector 29; they were earlier arrested the same offence ,” said Budhiraja.

The suspects used to provide pick and drop facilities to all the employees and were paying ₹20,000 a month as salary and nearly ₹35,000 as an incentive for duping US citizens.