Fake call centre case: Bengaluru Police reach out to US consulate to find citizens hit by fraud

“We are writing to the US authorities for information on the citizens who have fallen victim to this kind of scam perpetrated through fake call centres in India. This kind of fraud has become a sort of epidemic with several operating around the country,” a senior police officer in Bengaluru supervising the investigation said.

As many as 72 employees and 12 operators of the centres were arrested by the police.

“During the searches police arrested nearly 72 callers working for the company running the fraud and the main kingpins belonging to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, employing young graduates from various places in India mainly Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi,” the Bengaluru police said in a statement on July 8.

The added: “Callers targeted mainly victims from the United States of America and the modus operandi mainly involved sending text, voice, and email messages to potential targets that a fraudulent, suspect transaction or purchase is noticed in one of their accounts like a bank account or an Amazon account and that they are calling on behalf of the bank or Amazon to resolve the fraudulent transaction.”

Further explaining, the police stated, “They would finally zero in on the gullible victims who trust the caller and then pursue them till they part with their social security numbers, their bank account details, and siphon off money through various means such as untraceable money transfer apps like Amazon gift cards, crypto-currencies, and even wire transfers.”

According to a senior police officer, the fake call centres used software applications that allowed agents to target a large number of people from US databases available and the “callers and bankers” would engage susceptible victims and con them into parting with funds.

“This seems to be a big problem in the US but it has not been flagged by the authorities in recent times,” the senior police officer informed.

The details of the people who have fallen victim to these fake call centres and the money lost are likely to emerge from US authorities and this could also lead to identifying the specific centres involved in each fraud, the police sources said.

While the Bengaluru police busted the two fake call centres in Whitefield in early July, a UP police Special Task Force arrested 10 people on charges of running such fake offices targeting citizens of US, Canada, Lebanon, and Britain and duping them of money worth Rs 170 crore.

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