'I know you bought drugs': How Noida gang cheated US citizens

NOIDA: Eight men have been arrested from a sham call centre in Sector 62 for allegedly making calls to US citizens involved in purchase of drugs and extorting them with threats of informing the investigating agencies there about their deals with cartels in Columbia and Mexico.
Police said they had also partnered with US hackers, who would install malware in computers of ordinary citizens and route all the calls about complaints to the sham call centre in Noida. The call centre, which operated out of Ithum tower in Sector 62, is owned by one Vinod Lakhera, who is untraceable. It was Vinod who would source all the data related to US citizens, which would then be used to target them.
The US citizens who would be targeted by this gang would be asked to pay either in dollars or through gift cards, which would then be converted into rupees. It was not immediately clear how the gang managed to source the data of those who bought drugs illegally from cartels.
"They would claim to have the account details that the targets had used to purchase drugs from cartels in Columbia and Mexico. Since the targets would get conscious and fear action by investigating agencies, they would give in to the demands," said additional DCP (Noida) Ranvijay Singh.
Police said the accused would also offer technical services to those whose computers had been hacked by gangs in the US. "A person whose computer had been hacked would make calls to sort out the issue. The calls would land in the Noida office, where the gang would offer services. Hackers in the US would charge around Rs 300 for a one-minute call routed to the bogus centre between 1.30pm and 5am," a police officer said.
Sources said the gang made anywhere around Rs 2.5 lakh a day.
The eight youths who were arrested had all joined the call centre over the past few months. The police are looking for Vinod, who ran the company by the name, AP TechnoMart Private Limited. "Vinod Lakhera has been identified as the source of the data, He would get in touch with other data providers based in India and abroad," the additional DCP said.