Fake call centre busted in Gurugram, US nationals duped after being threatened with 'arrest warrants'

Sanjay Yadav

Gurugram, June 6

Gurugram police have busted yet another fake call centre being run from a building in Sector 23 and nabbed its three owners. The accused were allegedly duping foreigners through pop-ups in name of social security number (SSN). They were allegedly threatening the victims with fake arrest warrants in order to make them pay up.

The operator of the ‘call centre’ was also using a unique trick to scare and pressure the victims after sending them fake arrest warrants. Two mobiles and two laptops have been seized by police. An FIR has been registered at cybercrime police station. Police have taken the accused on five-day remand after producing them in a city court today.

According to the police, the accused were duping US nationals by using their social security numbers (SSN) obtained through pop-ups. The accused duped them of USD 200 to 500 by threatening them with penalisation for using drugs, opening fake bank accounts and taking fake loans. They even sent fake arrest warrants for “drug possession, drug trafficking and money laundering” when anybody denied paying money. They took money only through gift cards and then redeemed those.

The cybercrime police got a tip-off that a fake call centre was being run in Sector 23. On the direction of ACP Karan Goel, inspector Azad Singh with his team raided the fake call centre where men and women employees were busy on computers and laptops. Most of them were making calls in English. When asked they could not show any valid OSP licence of Department of Telecommunications or any other agreement/MoU related to their work.

Police arrested fake call centre owners identified as Jarar Ahmed, a native of Mumbai; Prathesh Patel, native of Bhopal; and Nisharg of Vejalpur, Ahmedabad. The arrested accused revealed that they had duped many foreigners and the call centre was operational for the last three months.

An FIR has been registered against the accused under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC, Sections 43, 66D, 75 of IT act at cybercrime police station.

“The accused used to buy data of American people from various websites, after that they used to send messages to them by uploading the data on their server. They would call them and demand USD 200 to 500 by misusing their identity and threatening them with blocking their SSN and sending them fake arrests warrant to make money. We have taken the three accused on remand and are questioning them,” said Karan Goel, ACP, DLF.