Fake call centre uses gaming apps as cover-up; 5 held

CHENNAI: A gang operating from Namakkal, which used innovative modus operandi to cover their trail by transferring the money they siphoned off through gaming apps, was arrested by the city police. A special team headed by Thoraipakkam Assistant Commissioner arrested the kingpin and four others after tracking the gang with the help of Adyar Cyber Crime cell.

The police arrested M Kumaresan (28) and his associates P Vivekanandan (41), G Gayathri (20), C Ranjitha (25) and T Subathra (21), who ran the fake call centre at Namakkal which lured the victims on the promise of arranging loans and collected their personal and banking details.

The gang was running Featherlite Tec and employed nine young women to make the calls to collect personal details of the victims. After convincing the victims into parting with these details, they would create a new bank account in the name of the victim. Then the money from the original account would be transferred to the new one so that victims would not know who emptied their account.

In some cases, added Adyar Deputy Commissioner V Vikraman, the money was transferred to play online games. Transferring money to the gaming application would mask the account details of the fraudster, and after playing one game he would ask the remaining money to be returned to his bank account, the official said.

The city police stumbled upon the gang while investigating a complaint filed by one Karupaiah from Perungudi, who lost Rs 20,000 to the gang. He received a call promising a loan for Rs two lakh. But soon afterwards, his account was emptied on April 8.