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Gurgaon scam: BPO trainees shop with cards of US clients
After a credit card fraud involving two Convergys employees rocked the city, another scam has surfaced at the Gurgaon branch of WNS, a leading global business process outsourcing firm.
After a credit card fraud involving two Convergys employees rocked the city, another scam has surfaced at the Gurgaon branch of WNS, a leading global business process outsourcing firm.
The firm filed a fraud case against its three trainees in September last year. Gagandeep Singh, a 27-year-old trainee, has been named the main accused. His colleagues Sumit Singh Tomar, 26, and Tanmay Gautam, 22, are the other two named in the case. Gagandeep is believed to have left the country.
The police have details regarding online shopping done using credit card details of five US-based customers. Apurva Gupta, one of the aggrieved customers, was the first to inform the firm on August 18 last year about the dubious credit card transactions worth $1,566. Another customer, Deidra Leenam Mckenzie, also reported two transactions of $958 dated July 29 and 30, 2011. On August 19, client Tao Peng reported another transaction done at Travelocity for Rs 28,000.
According to case details, Rs 28,000 was spent using details of Tanmay’s clients and Rs 2 lakh from Tomar’s clients. Most shopping orders were placed on www.fashionandyou.com. In all, the scam involves transactions of around Rs 3.8 lakh, the police said.
According to Tomar and Tanmay, they had joined WNS in August last year along with Gagandeep as part of an under training team. Their work involved making hotel bookings for clients using credit card details. However, according to the duo, Gagandeep would often sit with friends when they were on calls with clients.
On August 12, 2011, Tanmay was speaking to Tao Peng, one of the fraud victims, for a booking when Gagandeep came and sat behind him. It is suspected that Gagandeep saved the details on his mobile phone while Tanmay was taking details from the client. The next day, something similar happened when Tomar was dealing with Elizabeth Rios, another victim.
Before the WNS management unearthed the fraud, Gagandeep left the company without even completing his training programme. In the last week of August, the company called Tomar and Tanmay for a meeting and questioned them about fraudulent transactions. Both men claimed they never thought Gagandeep would play a fraud on them. According to the police, the credit card details were used to buy shoes and a Blackberry 9520 through Blue Dart courier. Hotel rooms were also booked at places such as Best Western Pony Soldier Inn & Suites and Marriot Washington.
In the first week of January, a Gurgaon police team had visited Jalandhar in Punjab to arrest Gagandeep. While he was staying at a rented accommodation in Delhi before he went missing, Tanmay, a native of Patna, was putting up in Faridabad.
