New Delhi: Delhi Police has taken major action against the alleged illegal international call centers that are cheating foreign nationals of lakhs of rupees in the name of technical assistance. On September 17, joint teams of Cyber Station and Special Staff of West District Police conducted simultaneous raids in Meenakshi Garden, Ajay Enclave and Kirti Nagar in West Delhi and exposed the alleged cyber fraud network. During the action, 23 accused including call center operators, managers, alleged 'bankers' and tele-callers were arrested.
During a press conference at Delhi Police Headquarters, West District DCP Hareshwar V. Swamy said that the accused were targeting citizens of America, Canada and Europe by converting residential complexes into call centres. The accused allegedly contacted foreign nationals by posing as Apple iOS and Microsoft technical support or customer service executives.
The 'game' of fraud started with a fake pop-up
According to the investigation, the alleged method of the accused was highly planned. Foreign nationals were tricked into contacting a toll-free number by displaying fake messages or pop-ups on their computers or mobile phones regarding unauthorized purchase of subscriptions or security issues. After this, tele-callers sitting in India used to talk to the victims through internet based calling.
Once the victim trusts the call, the call is allegedly transferred to another person who, posing as a senior official or a 'banker', demands an amount ranging from US$149, 249 or 499 in the name of resolving the problem. According to the police, the victims were made to pay through Apple gift cards or Zell. The payment information was passed on to other members of the network, after which the allegedly defrauded amount was collected and converted.
Hi-tech network was hidden behind 'Hello'
During the raid, police recovered 27 laptops, 28 mobile phones, 11 routers, 36 headphones, 25 adapters and Rs 79,200 in cash. Apart from this, two expensive cars Thar and Grand Vitara were also recovered. Preliminary investigation of digital devices indicated the use of Internet-based calling and remote-access applications such as Google Voice, X-Lite, I-BEAM, MicroSIP, and UltraViewer. Foreign call history, lists of telephone numbers from abroad, information related to victims, screenshots of payments and WhatsApp conversations, among other digital materials, were also found in the devices. According to the police, several WhatsApp business accounts and groups were allegedly being used to operate the network, provide information related to toll-free numbers and transact fraudulent amounts.
Police action against 23 accused
Police identified the arrested accused as Saurabh Sharma (36), Rahul Verma (24), Raju (23), Ratan Kumar (25), Nilesh Mishra (32), Vikas Giri (35), Navjot Singh (31), Saranjit Singh alias Jerry (31), Taranjit Singh alias Jazz (34), Nitin Das alias Karan Rai alias Nathan (24), Saurabh Singh alias Jason (25), Manmohan alias Maddy (32), Sagar Singh alias Shivi Singh alias Alex (23), Gurvinder Singh alias Harry (34), Sonit Kapoor alias James (31), A (28), Madhav Kathuria (20), Gursimran Singh (27), Harshit Handa (31), Shivam Sharma (26), Ravi Yadav (39), Ayush Bhargava (31) and Azim Ahmed (34). According to the police, some of these accused were allegedly owners or organizers of call centres, some were managers, some were tele-callers and some were in the role of 'bankers' in the network.
Cyber team tightened crackdown on thugs
The entire operation was carried out under the supervision of SHO of Police Station Cyber West, Inspector of Special Staff and ACP Operation West. The cyber police station team included SI Ankur Ohlan, SI Gaurav, SI Happy, SI Yogesh, HC Naresh, HC Sunil Kumar, HC Ved Prakash, HC Jagdish, HC Sandeep, HC Manish, HC Sanjeet, HC Nisha, Constable Rajendra and Constable Sandeep. In the team of special staff, SI Naresh, ASI Vinod, ASI Captain, ASI Umesh, HC Devendra, HC Deepak and Constable Sanjay played an important role in the action.
Digital evidence will reveal the secret of the entire network
Police are now conducting a detailed investigation of the recovered digital devices. The objective of the investigation is to ascertain the entire structure of the alleged network, the number of foreign victims, the individual role of the accused and the entire flow of the defrauded funds. On the basis of interrogation of the arrested accused, the role of other people associated with the network is also being investigated.