Agra: The Agra police have busted an international call centre operating in the city and arrested its owner and six others for allegedly cheating US nationals to the tune of crores of rupees under the pretext of getting them loans.
The police and SWAT teams, on a tip-off by a cyber vigilante, raided the call centre in Sector-C of Shastripuram Saturday. The employees, police said, were making VoIP (voice over internet protocol) calls through ZOIPER software to the international (US) mobile numbers displayed on their monitors.
Talking to ThePrint, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Vikas Kumar said call centre owner Anurag Pratap Singh, during interrogation, confessed that he was in contact with 2-3 foreign nationals who used to contact him via Skype and send him a list of numbers to be called.
Explaining the modus operandi, Singh allegedly told police that once he received the numbers, his tele-callers called those numbers and obtained personal details, including social security numbers, from unsuspecting American nationals.
Singh then handed over this information to his foreign accomplices who in turn hacked the bank accounts of US nationals and swindled money, he is believed to have told police.
Singh is said to have disclosed that he received $30-40 (approx. Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,300) in commission for every American whose information was obtained. This amount was allegedly sent to him in the form of gift vouchers on a WhatsApp group, as well as Bitcoin. The centre, running since 2021, allegedly made about Rs 30 lakh a month.
Further interrogation by the police revealed that Singh himself had been a call-centre employee just two years ago and had been recruited by a US national, identified as “Richard”, in the fraud.
The US embassy has been informed about this crackdown and now the US investigation agencies will also be involved.
(Edited by Geethalakshmi Ramanathan)
Also Read: Move over, Jamtara. Most fake customer care numbers registered in Bengal, says cyber firm study