Delhi Police cyber crime unit busts illegal call centre targeting foreign nationals, 54 arrested
The Delhi Police crime branch has arrested 54 people from an illegal call center in a case involving fraud with foreign nationals.
The Delhi Police cyber crime unit has arrested 54 people from an illegal call center in a case involving fraud with foreign nationals. Based on the information that a huge illegal call center was being operated from a place in Moti Nagar that is targeting foreign nationals and illegally inducing them to transfer money through Bitcoins and Gift cards, a team was formed comprising Inspector Parveen, SI Avdesh, SI Pawan and others under the supervision of ACP Aditya Gautam, and a raid was conducted at the said place.
It was found that the premises were being used to run an illegal call center from where accused persons were calling up people in the US and other countries impersonating various Law Enforcement Agencies and inducing them to transfer large amount of money after threatening them with legal action.
All 89 desktops and the Server set-up found at the spot were seized and 54 persons (45 male and 9 female) were arrested, including four team leaders and 'closers' ( persons responsible for ensuring that the victim ends up transferring money and thus, the call is 'closed') namely Gurmil Singh, Raunak, Jyotika and Yashpal.
- Accused impersonated law enforcement agencies to cheat and extort money from unsuspecting people.
- Foreign nationals from US and other countries were threatened with legal action and made to transfer money via Bitcoins and Gift Cards.
- 54 persons were arrested from the illegal call center, 89 desktops along with a Server have been seized.
- Accused’s used an elaborate written script to dupe more than 4,500 persons of around Rs. 90-100crores.
Modus Operandi
On interrogation, the accused persons disclosed that they contact foreign nationals based in the US and other countries impersonating various law enforcement agencies and other government agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the US Marshals Service, etc. and tell them that their bank accounts and other assets are being frozen as their details have been found at a crime scene and there are bank accounts running in their names using which illegal transactions have been made to drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia. They also threaten the victims with immediate arrest.
- Once the victim becomes apprehensive, they give them two options. One is to go for a legal action in which first the victim would be arrested and their assets would be seized and only later on could the victim fight it out in the court.
- The second option is to go for an Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR) which would be faster and simpler. When the victim chooses to go for ADR, they ask them to share all the details of their assets, including bank accounts and the amount of money in those accounts. In the next step, the victim is told that there is only one way to safeguard their assets; they would have to either buy Bitcoins or Google Gift Cards worth all the money in their accounts.
- If the victim agrees to buy Bitcoins, the accused induce them to convert all the money in their accounts into Bitcoins and transfer the same to the wallets operated by the accused persons, saying that it is a safe government wallet.
- If the victim agrees to buy Gift Cards, they induce them to share the number of the cards stating that it will be linked to their new bank accounts and thus, be safe. This has been corroborated by the written script recovered from the possession of the accused persons which describes the entire Modus Operandi step by step in detail and acts as a guide for the accused persons.
The script has also been seized, along with digital devices and the mobile phones of the accused, which were used in the commission of the offence.
The case is under investigation and help is being obtained from the forensic labs of CyPAD-NCFL Delhi to retrieve crucial digital evidence and linkages. Efforts are being made to identify the involvement of others.
The initial investigation has revealed that the owner of this Call Centre is managing the operations from Dubai, UAE. Further investigation is underway. Accused persons were running a call center from Moti Nagar.