British hacker unearths fake call centre in Gurugram, kingpin among two held
GURUGRAM: Gurugram Police may have busted various fraudulent centres where not only Indians but even foreigners were duped of lakhs and crores of rupees through fake call centres. The recent such scam, however, has not been unearthed by the law enforcement officials but by a professional hacker that too a Britisher who exposed the scam none the less through hacking.
According to the report, the process adopted by the British hacker identified Jim Browning and the subsequent revelation has again brought to the fore the deep root and the technical expertise of such call centres. Taking cognisance of the fact that a large number of his countrymen were getting duped, Browning hacked the closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) of a fake call centre. The images retrieved were subsequently shared by the British hacker on the online medium which was then lapped up the British tabloids.
Operated by staff members who are in their mid 20's, the modus operandi was first to install in the Microsoft software of the computers through pop-ups and then through tech support charge exorbitant amounts. In one of the images shared online, a British resident could be heard breaking down after he had no option but to pay 1,295 pounds amounting to Rs 1.2 lakh for a virus that was actually planted in his computer by the hackers.
It was further revealed that the call centre that used to dupe residents from the UK were making nearly 70,000 spam calls a month and in effect was earning over Rs 10 crore in just a month by planting fake viruses in the Microsoft Software of British citizens. The payment used to be made by the online payment platform Paypal.
A day after the massive scam was unearthed, the cyber team of the Gurugram Police sprang into action and made two arrests in the case. What has come forth is also no less shocking, the kingpin, identified as Amit Chauhan, is just 30 years old and lives in DLF Magnolias where a starting price of a normal apartment is Rs 25 crore. Having done his Btech, Chauhan had started the call centres over a year back when he was in his late 20's. His accomplice identified as Sumit Kumar, just 24-year-old, has also been been arrested. The two have been charged under various sections of the IT Act.
“We have arrested them and have begun investigating various aspects of the case of how many people they have actually duped. We hope to find out how many people have been actually duped. If required, we will also take assistance from the foreign agencies for more assistance and expertise in the case,” said Karan Goyal, Assistant Commissioner of Police (DLF) Gurugram.
This is not for the first time when foreigners from Western European countries, the USA and UK have been duped from the call centres operating in Gurugram. In 2019, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) teamed up with the Gurugram Police to bust some of these call centres after reports emerged of US citizens losing a substantial amount of money from such kinds of financial frauds.
The unearthing of the fake call centre comes just weeks after the Gurugram Police busted a call centre being operated from the car and used to operate as customer care of a reputed insurance firm. Taking cognisance of a large number of financial frauds, the Gururgam Police have begun awareness programs for cyber security.