- Delhi Police crackdown on fake call centers
- On behalf of the Apple company, American citizens are targeted
- The police suspect that the network has spread to Delhi
Delhi Police has busted a fake Apple/IOS technical support call center in Narayana Industrial area. From here, American citizens were targeted through fraudulent calls and gift card scams. Police have arrested seven people in this case.
On September 25, acting on a tip-off received by Sub-Inspector Gajendra Mathur, a team of West District's Anti-Auto Theft Squad raided a suspected international tech support fake call center operating under the name Veptra in Narayana Industrial area. During the raid, Arun, the alleged owner of the call center, his partner Salim and five callers were arrested. Police said the callers used laptops and headphones to communicate with American citizens and gave fake English names.
Arrest under various sections
After the operation, an FIR was registered at Narayana Police Station on September 26. The FIR has been registered under Sections 318 (4), 319 (2), 61 (2), 3(5) of the Indian Penal Code (BNS) and Section 66 D of the Information Technology Act.
Initial investigations revealed that the accused operated a fake Apple/iOS technical support setup to target Americans. He allegedly contacted people living in the US through a toll-free number and claimed to be an Apple technical support executive.
These callers tell people that their device or system has been exposed to viruses, malware or pornographic content. In this case, they will tell the Apple phone users that you have urgent technical support.
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Also the lure of gift cards
They would convince victims to buy gift cards under the pretext of fixing alleged technical problems. These callers would then get the gift card details or code from the other person and forward it to other people on their team. During the initial investigation of the seizures, police found software installations such as IBM, UltraViewer and AnyDesk. Along with that, the call history of the American number has come into the hands of the police.
Police said five laptops, 12 mobile phones, 2 routers, 6 headphones, 10 credit/debit cards, 5 check books and an Audi A3 35 TDI car were seized during the operation. The accused have been identified as Arun (29), Salim (28) and both of them are residents of Kakarola. It has also been revealed that Nikhil (30) of Kakarola, Montu Singh (34) of Pitampura, Tirhuchu (26) of Kishangarh, Karan (28) of Uttamnagar and Vishal (29) of Sagpur are also involved.
Police said further investigations are underway to trace the massive network, trace the source of the toll free numbers, identify the people contacted, investigate the gift card transactions, analyze the seized digital evidence and obtain information on money transactions.
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