Fake call center busted in Gurugram’s Udyog Vihar, seven arrested

The city police on Saturday busted a fake call centre operating out of a building in Udyog Vihar Phase 5 and allegedly duping people on the pretext of offering them loans and conducting lottery fraud.

The police arrested seven people, including the prime accused Suresh Waikhom, a native of Manipur.

A case was registered at Udyog Vihar police station under sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 66D and 75 of the Information Technology Act.

The accused were produced in the district court on Saturday. The court sentenced six of them to judicial custody, while another was remanded in police custody, police said.

“The accused were arrested after a raid by a team from our cyber force on Saturday morning,” Ajaybir Singh, station house officer, Udyog Vihar police station, said.

The police found that the company had no name and neither was it registered.

“The accused did not have a licence to run the call centre. They were found to be duping people on the internet by offering them loans, and charging them a fee for it. There were also instances of them running a lottery scam, where they would take money from people without any lottery happening for real,” Satish Kumar, assistant sub inspector, Udyog Vihar police station, said.

The case was filed on Saturday, shortly after the raid by the cyber police. “ We received a tip-off that a fake call centre was being operated from a building in Udyog Vihar Phase 5. A team was set up and a raid was conducted on Saturday morning,” Manoj Kumar, sub inspector, cyber police station, Gurugram, said.

On July 6, the police had busted another call centre racket operating from the same locality (Udyog Vihar Phase 5), which allegedly duped American and Canadian citizens by offering them loans at lucrative terms and tax benefits. Four people, who worked at the call centre, were from the Northeast and would defraud US and Canadian citizens by charging them a fee for loans which were never granted.

First Published: Jul 30, 2018 15:52 IST