In a massive cyber fraud bust, the Panchkula police detained 85 persons working in three fake call centres, allegedly involved in defrauding foreigners, including US citizens, for nearly a year. The call centres were being run from two buildings in IT Park, Sector 22.
While those detained for questioning included owners, employees, and several women from the north-eastern states, police officials in the know of the matter said that about 10 of them have been identified as the main culprits.
Deputy commissioner of police (DCP, crime) Manpreet Singh Sudan told media that the call centre employees used to lure victims by offering fake services for various streaming platforms such as Dish Network, and fraudulent schemes such as “Obama Welfare Initiative”.
They would inform the victims that their services had expired or were about to expire, and to renew them, they needed to provide personal and banking details. These details were then sold to other organised criminals. In some cases, victims were coerced into buying online coupons, which were converted to Bitcoin and funneled through the hawala network. Police suspect the accused may also be involved in sextortion.
During the raid, police recovered 85 laptops, 62 mobile phones, and ₹8.4 lakh cash from Certys IT Services, and 62 laptops, 60 mobile phones and ₹73,176 cash from iSpace Technologies Pvt. Ltd. From the third call centre – name hasn’t been disclosed by the police – 18 mobile phones, 21 CPUs, a laptop, and ₹3. 2 lakh cash were seized.
In all, three FIRs have been registered – one at the Chandimandir police and two at the cyber crime police station.
When HT visited the buildings, staff from nearby offices revealed that these call centres had been operating for almost a year. The shifts started in the evenings and continued till early morning hours to align with the work hours in the target countries. The raids were conducted late Wednesday night around 11 pm and continued until Thursday afternoon.
During the operation, some employees of other companies in the same buildings complained of harassment. They alleged that police had told them to remain inside their offices during the raid, and they were allowed leave only on Thursday morning. They said they were made to stay even though they had no connection to the fraudulent call centres. DCP Sudan, however, denied these allegations and said that the employees of other companies, who were standing outside the raided call centres, were stopped for only about an hour for verification purposes.
