Gurugram: Fake call centre targeting US citizens busted, 14 held
Darpan News Desk IANS, 08 Jun, 2023 10:46 AM
Gurugram, June 8 (IANS) A team of the Cyber Crime police station has busted a fake call centre in Gurugram district and arrested 14 people, including three women and the call centre owner, during the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, the police said.
The fake call centre was operating from Universal Trade Tower, Sector-49, and cheated US citizens in the name of tech support and charged $100 to $500 as service charges, via gift card, Amazon, Paypal and Cash app.
The suspects have been identified as Aditya, the call centre operator, Ankit Chadda, Akash Sain, Suraj Mishra, Ayush Saxena, Hemant Sharma, Sanjeev Shukla, Ajay Kumar, Ashutosh Sharma, Pankaj Kumar, Tushar Kumar, Rajdeepa Das Gupta, Deevika and Manisha.
During questioning, the accused revealed that Aditya Singh, the owner of the call centre, had hired the remaining suspects on salary/commission for customer service.
"The employees were employed at the call centres, which were being operated without permission. Also, the centre did not have any license issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT)," police added.
"Aditya Singh disclosed that he and all his accomplices listen to the calls coming on the toll-free number through REAL PBX DAILER in different ways after taking different orders, they used to create problems for the customers by talking about cancelling the order and then cheated them in the name of solving the same problem. After cheating, they used to change the toll-free number also."
"The police also found that when the customer used to call on the toll-free number shown by him (Aditya Singh), that call was connected to the accused through their vendor. If the customer told them about their problem, they would first take them into confidence to solve their problem and in the name of solving their problem, they would get remote access to their system through applications like Anydesk, TeamViewer, UltraViewer etc. They also used to tell the customers about other problems, including risk of personal information, account hacking by hacker, device insecure, financial information leak and child pornography etc. and dupe the victims," Vipin Ahlawat, Assistant Commissioner Of Police (Cybercrime), said.
Five mobile phones and 14 laptops have been recovered from the possession of all the accused persons.
In connection with the matter, an FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including the IT Act, has been registered at the Cyber Crime police station (East) for further investigation.
Sidhu was charged under section 323 of the Indian Penal Code for voluntary causing hurt, however he was let off with just fine. The top court had observed that the incident was more than 30 years old, and there was no past hostility between accused and victim. The court also noted that no weapon was used by the accused.
The accused has been identified as Noori Ibrahim, a resident of Vellore, Tamil Nadu. Her agent, Ibraheem Keethadth, a resident of Bengaluru, has also been arrested.
Sisodia concluded with "dissatisfaction" over unchanged Income Tax slab. "Today, this country needed some relief in the income tax slabs. This would have helped our middle class regain purchasing power and enter the markets. This would have naturally helped the economy grow."
Observing the 3rd World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day as a key moment to highlight the global community's commitment to ending these, India joined close to 40 other nations to illuminate iconic landmarks to raise awareness. This year, India lit up the New Delhi Railway Station in purple and orange hues to mark the occasion.
The accused have been identified as Nitin Pratap alias Atul and Sandeep Kumar -- residents of Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh. Police said the accused used a Suzuki Gixxer motorcycle for the last two months to commit the crime in Gurugram and Rajasthan, and they used to travel from Tapukara in Rajasthan once a week to snatch mobile phones.
The deceased, identified as Megha Kayal, 40, was working as a doctor in London Milton Keynes University Hospital. Prior to this, she was a doctor at Apollo hospital, Sarita Vihar, Delhi.
