New Delhi, July 20 (IANS) A fake call centre has been busted in the national capital, and six persons who used to dupe foreign nationals in the name of Microsoft technical support have been arrested in this connection, an official said on Wednesday.
The arrested individuals have been identified as Abhishek Chhabra (31), Rahul Gupta (24), Pushkar Raj (23), Aditya Dhankar (23), Arpit Chaudhary (23) and Ashish Vaswani (25).
According to the official, the main accused, Abhishek Chhabra was running the fake call-centre for the last one month.
The victims of the scam are mainly the people residing in the foreign countries.
The accused used to send pop-ups to the computers of such unsuspecting people that their system has been compromised and they should call at the given number for technical assistance by Microsoft.
When the victim calls, the call comes to this fake call centre through the "X-Lite" app.
"The accused pretended to be from Microsoft technical support assistance team and induced them to give remote access to their computer to them through applications like 'Ultra Viewer' or 'Any desk'. After that, they used to falsely tell the victim that several malicious programmes including malwares, spywares, etc., have been found in their system," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Amit Goel said.
The accused further "cautioned" the victim that their banking credentials might be compromised if immediate remedial steps are not taken.
The victim, fearing for their financial security, would have agreed to pay the amount as asked by the accused.
The payment was made in gift coupon i.e. Target, Google Play etc and the same was being encashed through the grey market.
Upon receiving the payment, the accused persons pretended to clean up the malwares, virus etc. from the victims' system.
All this while, the victim used to be under the impression that they are getting legitimate technical support from Microsoft Inc.
DCP Goel said the police received information on July 18 about a fake call centre that was being run in the Paschim Vihar area of Delhi which duped the US nationals on the pretext of providing technical support to the users of Microsoft and Apple.
Subsequently, a police team was constituted which conducted a raid at the premises and the accused persons were found operating a fake call centre from where calls were being made to unsuspecting people in foreign countries and they were being cheated by the accused who were pretending to be from Microsoft Inc.
During the raid, a total of 7 laptops, 7 headphones, 7 mobile phones, Rs 7.10 lakh in cash, 1 internet router etc., were recovered from the possession of the accused persons. Accordingly, the police registered a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act at the Crime Branch police station and all the six accused were arrested.
During the questioning of the accused, and the data recovered from the systems, it was found that the victims were cheated of a total amount of more than Rs 1 crore, in the last one month.
Punjab is predominantly an agricultural state with majority of population living in rural areas. Forty-five per cent of total diesel consumed in Punjab is used in agriculture, 25 per cent in transportation, 20 per cent in industry and 10 per cent by retail consumer.
Delhi Police on Wednesday busted a smuggling racket of imported cigarettes and recovered 3,650 packets of illegally smuggled cigarettes, valued at approximately Rs 7.3 lakhs. According to the police, a man, identified as Aamir Laeeq, 30, was arrested in this connection.
Security guards in all the banks in J&K are provided with point 12 bore shotguns and not rifles. While bullets are used in rifles, the ammunition of a shotgun is made of cartridges.
The haul is valued at nearly Rs 8 lakh. The smuggler Abdul Baki Malitha (40) and the silver pellets have been handed over to the Customs department at Jalangi, Murshidabad, for further processing.
The sources also said that they have identified around 22 mobile numbers of PFI student wing members who were present in the area before the violence erupted. They said that the probe agencies have been trying to ascertain their activities and they may be questioned by the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police.
The packet had come through the cargo to Sirajudeen on April 17, and on Monday a person named Naukul had come to take it. The officials used a gas cutter to open the meat slicer and recovered 2.26 kg of gold stacked inside the machine.
