NOIDA: Noida police on Thursday arrested 84 people, including 36 women, after a raid at a call centre on charges of duping US citizens of crores of rupees by pretending to be American government officials.
The accused had a database of around five lakh US citizens that included their names, contact numbers and some financial details which were used to target them and take them into confidence, they said. The raid was conducted at the call centre located in Sector 6, with a capacity of 150 desktops, around 5 pm on Wednesday over inputs of illegal operations being carried out from a facility during night, DCP (Noida) Harish Chander said.
“It’s a large-size call centre. We have arrested 84 people, including women, from there. The centre functioned during night,” Chander said. “The call centre was used two to three times a week and in one night alone, the gang would make Rs 25 lakh to Rs 30 lakh. They had been operating for around four months now from the facility in Noida,” the DCP said.
Two key persons who are believed to be the masterminds behind this call centre have been identified but are at large, the officer said.
The US embassy has also been informed about it, while formal communication with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol is being established, the police said.
On the gang’s modus operandi, Chander said the callers would contact the gullible US citizens using voice messages and would scare them by saying their ‘social security number’ -- a unique identity given by the government ‘ has been ‘compromised’.