Fake international call centre busted in Bengaluru, 11 held

61 employees, including 30 women, have also been detained
Employees of the fake cyber call centre detained by the police on Thursday night
Employees of the fake cyber call centre detained by the police on Thursday night

BENGALURU: Two branches of a Bengaluru-based fake international call centre located in Whitefield and Mahadevapura areas were raided by Whitefield Division police on charges of cheating US citizens by obtaining their bank details to siphon off their money. The police have arrested 11 people who are all from Ahmedabad in Gujarat and have recovered 238 desktop computers worth around Rs 2 crore. Around 61 employees, including 30 women staff, have been detained. The search started at 10 pm on Thursday and went on till early Friday morning.

The fake company Ethical Info Co Pvt Ltd’s branch on the first floor of Gayathri Tech Park in Whitefield and another branch at Silver Towers in Mahadevapura were raided. The company was running an organised fake cyber call centre. The seized items worth Rs 2 crore include 127 desktops, four laptops, 150 headphones, 10 internal hard disks, three high-end cars, two school vans, one tempo traveller and Rs 18 lakh in cash. The accused were using school vans to transport the employees fearing that the fraudulent company would be caught if other transport vehicles were used. The employees worked during the night so as to target US nationals.

The 11 accused were acting at the behest of the kingpin who is a US national from California. They allegedly siphoned off millions of rupees from gullible victims. The police are now looking at the option of transferring the case to central investigating agencies as the main accused is a foreign national. The kingpin, after collecting data of US citizens, was sharing it with his Bengaluru associates. The team of 11 accused in Bengaluru were then making the employees call the US nationals.

The employees were given ready-made scripts developed by the US national. The employees were divided into three levels. The first level collected the basic information of the victims, the mid-level obtained the account details and other sensitive information and the third level also known as the closure team trapped the victims. The salaries to the employees were being paid in cash. The kingpin who is on the run was making payments to his subordinates through hawala.

“The modus-operandi involved sending messages to potential targets through text messages and voice mails that a fraudulent/suspect transaction or purchase is noticed in one of their accounts such as a bank account or Amazon account and they are calling on behalf of Amazon or the bank to resolve the fraudulent transaction. They would zero in on gullible victims who trusted the callers and then pursue them till they part with their social security numbers, bank account details and siphon off money through various means including untraceable money transfer applications such as Amazon gift cards, crypto currency and even wire transfers,” S Girish, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Whitefield Division, said.

The arrested are Pratik, Rishi Vyas, Syed, Parikh Biren, Karan, Jitiya Kishan, Hett Patel, Bihang, Raj Ialih Soni, Vishal Parmar and Mitesh Gupta. They were employing fresh graduates from various parts of the country including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. The callers mainly targeted US nationals.

Fate of employees
“The 61 employees will be made witnesses in the case and no cases will be registered against them. Most of them were not aware of the racket and were under the impression that they were working for US clients,” the DCP added.

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The New Indian Express
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