Illegal call centre duping foreigners busted, 3 held

Police on Wednesday claimed that they busted an illegal call centre in Sector 62 that duped foreigners on the pretext of tax discrepancies.

Three suspects were arrested in the case. Police identified the alleged mastermind as Owais Alam from Moradabad, and his alleged business partners Shahnur and Ankush Bahri.

“They were provided data of foreigners mostly from the US, the UK and Australia. The suspects would reach out to them and claim to be local tax officers and had found tax discrepancies after which they would have the foreigners pay them through gift cards,” said joint commissioner of police (law and order) Luv Kumar.

Police officials claim that the suspects reached out to at least 15,000 people over the past three months, many of whom were duped. Police said that the servers and equipment at the office was registered in Alam’s name and the centre had a monthly turnover of nearly ₹1 crore.

“Some servers have been removed from here and some were wiped off data. We are working on recovering it,” said assistant commissioner of police, zone 1, Rajneesh Verma.

The call centre had 10 employees and police said they were verifying their role in the case. Police said they recovered electronic gadgets, documents and ₹39 lakh from the suspects.

They were booked under relevant sections of IPC, and the Indian Telegraph Act at the Sector 58 police station.

THE SUSPECTS REACHED OUT TO AT LEAST 15,000 PEOPLE OVER THE PAST THREE MONTHS, MANY OF WHOM WERE DUPED, COPS SAID