CHANDIGARH: Punjab Police has arrested 132 accused in a cyber fraud case during coordinated raids at two fake call centres functioning from offices in Ludhiana. More than 300 bank accounts have been frozen.
The Police busted an "international cyber fraud syndicate" with key players operating from Delhi and Gujarat, targeting foreign nationals through pop-up scams, remote access and bogus bank security alerts. The group would then route money back to India via illegal channels.
The cyber cell of Ludhiana Police also recovered Rs 1.32 crore cash, 98 laptops, 229 mobile phones and 19 vehicles allegedly purchased using crime proceeds.
Most alleged accused were working as employees, getting a salary between Rs 20,000 and Rs 50,000, and were aware of the fraudulent practices of the racket.
Thirteen teams of the gang were active, with one team siphoning USD 20,000 per day by defrauding people.
Ludhiana Police Commissioner Swapan Sharma said that, acting upon credible intelligence inputs, simultaneous raids were conducted at multiple locations, including commercial premises near Sandhu Tower and Silver Oak.
"The gang used fake Microsoft security alerts to trap unsuspecting victims abroad. The people would suddenly see alarming pop-up warnings on their computer screens claiming their systems had been hacked or infected with dangerous viruses. Then the screens would freeze simultaneously, prompting users to call a fake customer care number listed in the pop-up. When the victim contacted the displayed number, the call was redirected to the fraudsters through an Internet-based dialler application used for routing inbound calls," Sharma said.
"Each team had designated 'openers' and 'closers'. The 'opener' would receive the incoming call and persuade the victim to download a remote access software to get into the victim’s computer system. Then they ran fake or dummy scans on the system. During that procedure 'false' warning pop-ups displayed issues such as compromised email accounts, hacked bank accounts, child pornography alerts and other false security threats. Then the victims were made to open their email accounts, banking applications and other confidential information on their systems via screen sharing and remote access and thus the confidential data was accessible to the gang and subsequently, the victims were told their bank account had serious security issues and that the call would be transferred to a bank representative concerned," he said.
Sharma said that the 'closer,' impersonating a bank official, would falsely advise the victim that the money in the account was unsafe. Then this gang made sure that the victim transferred the money through either through cash pickup from the doorstep, gold pickup from the doorstep after purchasing gold, purchase or sharing of gift cards from Amazon or Apple and wire transfer of money into fake foreign accounts.
"Thus the money was routed to India through multiple hawala channels, cryptocurrency transactions and other illegal methods."
It came to light during the investigation that around 40 per cent of the cheated amount was routed to India through hawala channels, while the remaining share was retained by foreign-based associates of the syndicate.
The accused had been earning about Rs 35 crore per month.
Sharma claimed that this was the largest-ever syndicate ever busted in North India by the police
