New Delhi: The Delhi Police Crime Branch has busted an alleged fake international call centre in the national capital’s Mundka area and arrested two persons, officials said. The accused, said police, posed as officials of the US government grants department and cheated several Americans on the pretext of offering them grants.
A raid was conducted at the call centre premises Tuesday. According to police, a case was registered Wednesday, following which the two primary accused — Nitin Singh and Daya Nidhi Prakash — were arrested. Officials also said the call centre was run by Singh. Another 16 people have been apprehended in the case so far.
In a statement released Friday, Vichitra Veer, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Delhi Police Crime Branch, said, “The accused made calls impersonating themselves as officials of USA govt Grant Deptt, and told the victims that their name or phone no has been selected for the grant. Victims were coerced to avail the opportunity and when they would agree, they were asked to pay for a registration fee in the form of a gift voucher which was later en-cashed through another accused Prakash who worked on commission basis.”
The DCP added, “During interrogation, the accused Singh revealed that he used to buy the data of US citizens from another accused Kamal and later on, after cheating the USA citizens, he used to provide the details of the gift vouchers to Daya to convert them to Indian currency.”
The police also claimed the accused hired telecallers with fake American accents to talk to US citizens. Sources said the accused had been running the call centre for around three months.
Modus operandi
According to the police, the accused coordinated with different people to hire telecallers with fake US accents.
“With a script and software like VICIdial and VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol), the telecallers would make calls to US citizens impersonating as officials of the US government grant department,” said DCP Veer.
The police also said that once the accused gained the victims’ trust, they would ask them to call back on a phone number. The victims were then allegedly asked for a registration fee in the form of gift vouchers. These vouchers, for eBay, Stream or Google Play, were priced at approximately $200.
The police have so far recovered over Rs 20 lakh from Prakash’s house. According to officials, he acted as the broker and would encash vouchers for 30 per cent commission. The police have recovered one BMW and a MG Hector car, apart from 11 desktops, eight laptops, over 100 sim cards and an internet router among other things.
The investigation was led under the supervision of Inspector Pankaj Thakran, led by ACP Abhinendra Jain (Crime Branch).
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