Fake call centre duping US citizens busted; 29 arrested in Ludhiana

CP Sidhu said that the arrested accused revealed that three men — Alex, Cherry and Paul—were the masterminds of the gang. “They are currently absconding and have been nominated in the case. It is a possibility that they might be operating with fake names,” he said.

Police recovered 14 tablets, 34 mobile phones, two laptops, a two-wheeler and Rs 1.17 lakh in cash from them.

CP Sidhu said that the gang used to send fake messages of systems being hacked to US citizens. They would then provide helpline numbers to solve the issue and when the user would call on those numbers, they would introduce themselves as customer support staff of Microsoft or Apple.

“Once the user was get convinced that they were actually from these companies, the accused would scare them by saying that their system was at great risk of being hacked or was already hacked. They would further make them talk to other accused claiming that they were senior officials. They would then tell victim that their bank accounts were also at risk so they should purchase e-vouchers to save their money. Thereafter, they would take details of their bank accounts on the pretext that they would further transfer back the money into their accounts after ensuring that the accounts are safe. Meanwhile, their accomplice Alex would redeem the vouchers” said CP Sidhu.

“Alex, after redeeming vouchers, would further send money to Cherry, Sandeep Yadav and Santosh Yadav through hawala. The questioning so far found that Cherry and Paul are the kingpin of the racket, whereas the arrested accused are just employees who would get salaries between Rs 25,000 to Rs 45,000,” he added.

An FIR has been registered under Sections 420 (cheating), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC, Sections 66C and 66 D of Information and Technology Act with the division number 8 police station.

Police said that all accused are class 12 pass and only two are graduates. They are aged between 20 and 25 years. Some had joined the centre while looking for employment but continued working despite knowing it was fake, said police.