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Ludhiana police on Friday arrested a fake “international call centre” and arrested 29 people, including two women, who were allegedly scamming foreigners, mostly from the US, by presenting themselves as “technical service providers from tech giants, including Microsoft and Apple”.
Ludhiana Police Commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu said the center operates from Dad village in Ludhiana and those arrested are from different states including Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Delhi and Punjab.
CB Seidu said the arrested defendants revealed that three men – Alex, Sherry and Paul – were the masterminds of the gang. They are currently fugitives and have been nominated in the case. It is possible that they may be operating under fictitious names.
The police recovered 14 tablets, 34 mobile phones, two laptops, a two-wheeler and Rs 1.17 lakhs in cash from her.
CB Seidu said the gang was sending bogus messages of hacked systems to American citizens. They will then provide problem helpline numbers and when the user calls those numbers, they introduce themselves as Microsoft or Apple customer support personnel.
“Once the user is convinced that they actually belong to these companies, the accusers will scare them by saying that their system is at risk of being hacked or has already been hacked. They will also make them talk to other accusers claiming to be high officials. Then they will tell the victim that their bank accounts were also in danger, so they should buy electronic vouchers to save their money. After that, they will take their bank account details under the pretense that they will transfer money back into their accounts after making sure the accounts are safe. At the same time, they will refund Their partner Alex vouchers,” said CP Sidhu.
“Alex, after redeeming the vouchers, will send the money to Cherry, Sandeep Yadav and Santosh Yadav through hawala. The interrogation has so far concluded that Cherry and Paul are the main components of the racket, while the arrested defendants are mere employees who will be paid between Rs 25,000 and Rs 45,000.”
FIR is registered under Sections 420 (Fraud) and 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) of the IPC, and Sections 66C and 66D of the Information and Technology Act with Section 8 Police Station.
The police said that all the accused are class 12 graduates and only two are graduates. Their ages range from 20 to 25 years. Police said some of them joined the center while looking for work, but continued to work even though they knew it was fake.
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