PANAJI
The Cyber Crime police busted an international call centre racket with the arrest of 24 persons for impersonating loan agents and representatives of reputed companies and government agencies to dupe US citizens of around Rs 1 crore.
Addressing a press conference at police headquarters on Monday, Director General of Police (DGP) Alok Kumar informed that the illegal call centre was operating from Zuarinagar. The accused allegedly impersonated agents from loan companies, employees of Amazon, PayPal, Zelle Pay, Apple Pay and government agencies including law enforcement officers.
“They induced unsuspecting US citizens to pay large sums in the form of gift cards, bitcoins, and other means under false pretexts, including loan assistance, purchase payments, and technical support,” he said.
Superintendent of Police (Cyber Crime) Rahul Gupta, also present at the briefing, said the accused, mostly from Delhi, were caught red-handed operating the fraudulent call centre which had been active for a month. Each employee was paid a monthly salary of Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000.
“This call centre has been operational for one month, during which it is estimated to have perpetrated fraud amounting to over Rs 1 crore. The employees were recruited via an online agency and trained extensively on specific scripts to be used during calls. Their monthly salaries ranged between Rs 35,000 and Rs 40,000. The accused impersonated employees of Amazon, Paypal, IOS, Zell Pay, Apple Pay, loan companies, and government agencies, targeting US citizens. They fraudulently extracted money by inducing victims to pay for loans, purchase goods, and resolve fake technical issues, etc,” Gupta added.
A case under Sections 318(4) (cheating and dishonestly inducing the delivery of property), 319(2) (impersonation) read with 3(5) (common intention) of BNS and Section 66-D of the Information Technology Act has been registered against the accused, hailing from Delhi, Gurgaon, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and other places.
The Cyber Crime team seized 26 laptops, 24 headphones, eight internet routers and 26 mobile phones from the premises.
