Gurugram: Fake call centre targeting US citizens busted, 14 held
Darpan News Desk IANS, 08 Jun, 2023 10:46 AM
Gurugram, June 8 (IANS) A team of the Cyber Crime police station has busted a fake call centre in Gurugram district and arrested 14 people, including three women and the call centre owner, during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, the police said.
The fake call centre was operating from Universal Trade Tower, Sector-49, and cheated US citizens in the name of tech support and charged $100 to $500 as service charges, via gift card, Amazon, Paypal and Cash app.
The suspects have been identified as Aditya, the call centre operator, Ankit Chadda, Akash Sain, Suraj Mishra, Ayush Saxena, Hemant Sharma, Sanjeev Shukla, Ajay Kumar, Ashutosh Sharma, Pankaj Kumar, Tushar Kumar, Rajdeepa Das Gupta, Deevika and Manisha.
During questioning, the accused revealed that Aditya Singh, the owner of the call centre, had hired the remaining suspects on salary/commission for customer service.
"The employees were employed at the call centres, which were being operated without permission. Also, the centre did not have any license issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT)," police added.
"Aditya Singh disclosed that he and all his accomplices listen to the calls coming on the toll-free number through REAL PBX DAILER in different ways after taking different orders, they used to create problems for the customers by talking about cancelling the order and then cheated them in the name of solving the same problem. After cheating, they used to change the toll-free number also."
"The police also found that when the customer used to call on the toll-free number shown by him (Aditya Singh), that call was connected to the accused through their vendor. If the customer told them about their problem, they would first take them into confidence to solve their problem and in the name of solving their problem, they would get remote access to their system through applications like Anydesk, TeamViewer, UltraViewer etc. They also used to tell the customers about other problems, including risk of personal information, account hacking by hacker, device insecure, financial information leak and child pornography etc. and dupe the victims," Vipin Ahlawat, Assistant Commissioner Of Police (Cybercrime), said.
Five mobile phones and 14 laptops have been recovered from the possession of all the accused persons.
In connection with the matter, an FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including the IT Act, has been registered at the Cyber Crime police station (East) for further investigation.
Congratulating the meritorious students, he extended best wishes to them for their future. Mann said it is a red-letter day for the state as these girl students have proved their mettle by excelling in these exams.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Friday accused the AAP government in Punjab of trying to muzzle the voice of media ever since it assumed power. "The government has registered false cases against journalists besides banning web channels and even stopping advertisements to publications which refused to relay its propaganda," he said.
Gandhi's trip is impelled "by a desire to raise our concern about democracy", said Sam Pitroda, a longtime US-based associate of the Gandhis and someone closely associated with the planning and execution of the Congress leader's visit.
Notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was transferred from Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat to Delhi's Mandoli Prison in the early hours of Thursday. The decision to lodge Bishnoi to Mandoli jail was taken due to security concerns, a senior prison official said.
Speaking at annual meeting of the Kerala Police Association, Sethuraman said: "The use of drugs is prevalent among the children of police officials at all levels. Two children of a Superintendent of Police are victims of drug abuse and this affected his family life too. There has to be a serious check to prevent this rampant drug abuse, which is alarming."
To curb the menace of issuing SIM cards on fake identities, a major security threat, the Punjab Police have got blocked over 1.8 lakh SIM cards activated using fake identities and forged documents, Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said on Thursday. In one case 500 SIM cards have been issued with the same photograph but in different names by forging documents.
