Fake call centre duping US nationals busted, 33 held
GURGAON:The Gurgaon Police on Monday busted a call centre racket operating separately from different buildings in Udyog Vihar Phase 5, which allegedly duped American and other foreign citizens by offering them loans, lotteries and tax benefits.
The police got a whiff of this scam while investigating a fraud concerning foreign clients of a multi-national firm based in Gurgaon, who were being duped by the Gurgaon-based operators.
In the raids on Monday night, police said 33 persons working as managersandteamleaderswere arrested from these call centres while over 250 employees were included in the investigation. The police also seized a large number of laptops, computers and other IT equipment used in the con operation. The accused were booked under sections 406, 419 and 66 of the IT Act.
Upon questioning the employees, the police found that the owners of Gurgaon-based racket were Nitin Dahiya, a Gurgaon resident, Rohit Kumar resident of Noida and Shahrukh Khan from Delhi. The owners of another call centre were identified as Delhi residents Rohit Rajvansh and Rahul Shrivastav.
The police suspects that the accused were managing operations on behalf of a mastermind or kingpin, who hails from Gujarat and is based abroad.
“Seven cases have been registered against the accused for running the call centres without any permission, lease agreement or authorisation”, said Sumit Kuhar, DCP, crime, Gurgaon. The workers at these call centres were paid salary in cash.
“The victims were asked to pay money through iTunes card from which cash could be transferred,” said Kuhar. He, however, refused to indicate the amount of money siphoned and how the money was brought from abroad. Given wide ramifications of this call centre fraud, Gurgaon police commissioner Sandeep Khirwar said, “This is a major operation as money was funnelled through Hawala channels.”