#contactcenterworld

New Delhi, India, Dec 22, 2020 -- In the fourth such case over the past 10 days, an illegally run call centre in Keshav Puram was raided and five people, including a 20-year-old woman, were arrested by police.

The accused, the kingpin Mani Kartik (32), his 18-year-old son K Rahul, Prachi Arora (20), C Shiva (28) and N Marimuttu (37), live in different localities of northwest Delhi.

DCP (Northwest) Vijyanta Arya said eight mobile phones, 10 additional SIM cards, eight ATM cards, apart from data of online shoppers, were seized from the call centre.

The gang obtained data of people who had recently made purchases on e-commerce sites for Rs 2-10 for each mobile number and called them posing as executives of the companies. The crooks told the targets that they had been selected in a lucky draw during the "Big Billion" or "Mega Festive" sales and they had won a car or a bike. They took amounts up to Rs 10,000 as processing fee and taxes and also sought feedback on their recent purchases to gain the target’s trust.

An investigation was started after police received a complaint from a person who had been duped of Rs 6,000. The victim stated that the caller claimed that he had won a car in the lucky draw. They also gave him the option of either taking the car or a cash equivalent. The victim opted for the latter after which he was asked to deposit Rs 6,000 as conversion and processing fee. He was given a bank account to deposit the money. The victim got suspicious when the caller became unreachable after which he lodged the complaint.

The bank account in which the complainant transferred the amount was scrutinised. It
was found that it had been opened recently in the name of Prachi Arora, a resident of A3- Block in Burari. Within just one month, Rs 27 lakh had been deposited in the account. After analysing the call details, police found the call centre being operated at Keshav Puram. Subsequently, a raid was conducted and the five accused were arrested.

The kingpin disclosed that he also gave numbers of targets to other call centres for a commission. Police are working on this lead. The accused said they used a mobile number and bank account for a maximum of 15 days and then disposed of it. Subsequently, a new handset and bank account was used for carrying out the fraud.

#contactcenterworld

Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com