19 call centres that conned Canadian citizens busted
TORONTO: AT least 19 call centres in the National Capital Region, which were allegedly responsible for defrauding Canadian residents, have been dismantled in an operation undertaken by Indian law enforcement agencies with the cooperation of their North American counterparts.
These call centres were located mainly in Noida in Uttar Pradesh. They were considered the source of numerous scam calls to Canadians, during which they claimed that they belonged to the Canadian Revenue Agency or CRA and threatened dire consequences if taxrelated penalties and payments were not settled.
According to a statement released by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the “coordinated effort comes as a result of information provided to the Indian authorities” with the support of the Canadian Anti-fraud Centre (CAFC).
RCMP superintendent Peter Payne, director of financial crimes unit, said, “This success is clear evidence of our strong collaboration and continued support with the Indian authorities. We will continue to assess the tips and information provided to us and we will work with our domestic and international partners to fight fraud .”
“This latest development is part of a broad and long standing international effort to address call centres that perpetuate fraud,” the RCMP statement noted. The operation also involved law enforcement from the Five Eyes countries, which, other than Canada, include the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.
These scam robocalls feature a recorded voice, ostensibly that of a CRA agent, and are aimed at intimidating the recipient by stating that they owe money to the CRA and will be arrested if they do not pay immediately, or that a lawsuit has been filed against them by the CRA and a warrant of arrest has already been issued under their name, that they will be deported if the money demanded is not paid, a warning posted by the CAFC said. To lend authenticity to the calls, the callers spoofed Canadian numbers.
“We have conducted over two dozen raids so far in the city. We have increased our networking in the past few months to gather intelligence on these centres. ,” said Ajay Pal Sharma, senior superintendent of police, Noida.
3 HELD AFTER RAID
Continuing its campaign against illegal call centres in the city, the Noida unit of the Special Task Force raided a call centre in Sector 10 and arrested three people Thursday. (With inputs from HTC, Noida)