THANE/MUMBAI : The multi-million dollar call centre racket, busted earlier this week, allegedly claimed the life of an elderly American woman, who was threatened after refusing to meet the demands of the call centre employees posing as US revenue officials. According to Thane Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, the probe team came upon the vital information when it was scanning seized call record hard disks.
The unidentified American national is said to have died after allegedly suffering a stroke following a threat call by an employee, Singh told media representatives in Thane.
The incident came to light from a call record wherein the woman’s son was abusing the caller for his mother’s death. The probe team is trying to locate the call and identify the employee in question after which additional charges under section 304 of the IPC are likely to be slapped on the accused, he said.
The racket was exposed after Thane police raided three call centres, which were functioning illegally at Hari Om IT Park, Universal Outsourcing Services and Oswal House on the busy Mira Road locality in Thane district, on Tuesday night.
The investigating police personnel have said that the scam should have been going on for at least a year.
Their modus operandi, according to a top CID police officer, included getting in touch with US residents through VoIP (voice over internet protocol) calls and speaking with them in an American accent. By posing as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officers, the callers would then seek the victims’ financial and bank account information.
The gullible people on the other end would share their details after being threatened of dire consequences that included legal action and penalties.
Some of the call centre employees earned up to `1 lakh per month as reward from the racketeers for forcing the US nationals to cough up money.
The call centre employees were fully trained in US accent and were given SOP and call sheet, based on which they used to make calls to the ‘tax defaulters’.
The daily ‘turnover’ of these illegal call centres is said to be to the tune of nearly `1 crore to `1.5 crore, and the annual turnover could be well more than `300 crore.
Besides arresting 70 people, Kashimira police had booked 630 more people under IPC sections 384 (extortion), 419 (cheating by impersonation), 420 (cheating) and under relevant sections of IT Act and Indian Telegraph Act. A manhunt has been launched to nab 12 absconding accused, including two directors of Universal Outsourcing Services — Tapan Gupta and Arjun Vasu. All those arrested so far are in police custody until Monday.