Delhi: With fake call centre, gang cons international clients
Sidharth Bhardwaj | TNN | Updated: Mar 13, 2019, 06:07 IST
The men involved: Mohit Bansal, Yashwant Singh, Guraman Singh, Udit, Rohit and Pfokerni.NEW DELHI: Led by a former Mr Delhi and Mr Haryana title holders, a gang of six posed as customer care executives of tech giants like Google, Apple, Facebook and Paypal in running a sophisticated scam in which they got their targets to buy expensive online vouchers of Google Play or iTunes. They redeemed the vouchers for themselves through agents outside India and had the money channelled to India through hawala. Police suspect they made nearly $100,000 every month.
The kingpins Mohit Bansal and Yashwant Singh and their associates Udit, Guraman Singh, Rohit and Pfokerni, were nabbed by police on March 7, according to Rajiv Ranjan, additional CP (crime). He said DCP Rajesh Deo led the investigative team, and it was also probing 106 others who worked as telecallers to ascertain if they were involved in the deceit.
The cops disclosed that the gang started operations around a year ago and were targeting the customers of the tech majors. Police were alerted to the operation of fake call centres in Delhi-NCR, which were accused of receiving and making international calls bypassing the legal gateways. On March 7, a joint team of the Department of Telecommunication and the Crime Branch led by ACP Jasbir Singh and inspector Vijay Samaria raided the call centre in Pitampura and took in the six men for questioning.
Their unique modus operandi left the cops bewildered. They confessed that they started by registering fake customer care phone numbers on Google search and paid to have them show up on top in the search results. “A man sitting in the United States would dial the number circulated by the gang. The accused, in order to bypass the legal gateways for international calls, would use VoIP services to directly connect with the victims,” an officer explained.
As part of the payment process for resolving tech problem, the telecallers made the victims purchase Google Play cards worth anything from $100 to $2,000 as security for the services rendered. They would tell the victims that they could redeem the vouchers later and get back their money.
However, the gang would deceitfully make the victims reveal the alphanumeric codes of the purchased cards, which they then transmitted to their associates located in other countries. These agents would then redeem the vouchers and transfer the money to India through the hawala network. Alongside this, the gang also sometimes stole the bank details of the customers and used them to siphon funds from their accounts.
The kingpins Mohit Bansal and Yashwant Singh and their associates Udit, Guraman Singh, Rohit and Pfokerni, were nabbed by police on March 7, according to Rajiv Ranjan, additional CP (crime). He said DCP Rajesh Deo led the investigative team, and it was also probing 106 others who worked as telecallers to ascertain if they were involved in the deceit.
The cops disclosed that the gang started operations around a year ago and were targeting the customers of the tech majors. Police were alerted to the operation of fake call centres in Delhi-NCR, which were accused of receiving and making international calls bypassing the legal gateways. On March 7, a joint team of the Department of Telecommunication and the Crime Branch led by ACP Jasbir Singh and inspector Vijay Samaria raided the call centre in Pitampura and took in the six men for questioning.
Their unique modus operandi left the cops bewildered. They confessed that they started by registering fake customer care phone numbers on Google search and paid to have them show up on top in the search results. “A man sitting in the United States would dial the number circulated by the gang. The accused, in order to bypass the legal gateways for international calls, would use VoIP services to directly connect with the victims,” an officer explained.
As part of the payment process for resolving tech problem, the telecallers made the victims purchase Google Play cards worth anything from $100 to $2,000 as security for the services rendered. They would tell the victims that they could redeem the vouchers later and get back their money.
However, the gang would deceitfully make the victims reveal the alphanumeric codes of the purchased cards, which they then transmitted to their associates located in other countries. These agents would then redeem the vouchers and transfer the money to India through the hawala network. Alongside this, the gang also sometimes stole the bank details of the customers and used them to siphon funds from their accounts.
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