The Cyber Crime Cell of Pune City Police has busted a ‘fake’ call centre that allegedly cheated several American nationals by pretending to be officials from the ‘Social Security Administration’ department of America. Police have arrested two suspects in the case, identified as Akib Altaf Shaikh (27), and Sarim Aman Shaikh (29). Acting on a tip-off, a team of cyber police station, led by Senior Inspector Jayram Paigude, raided the call centre, which was operating from a building in Pune Camp. The duo arrested in this case were booked under sections 419, 420, 34 of the Indian Penal Code, pertaining to cheating, and sections of the Information Technology Act. Police said the fraudsters had hired some youths with the ability to speak fluent English, who then made calls to American nationals. Claiming to be officials of Social Security administration, they threatened to take action against these American nationals for carrying out “unusual activities.” Then they transferred the call to another number in the office, but told the American nationals that the call was being transferred to officials of the US Treasury Department. The person pretending to be an official of the US Treasury Department asked the American nationals to purchase gift cards from various stores to settle the case. After the American nationals purchased these gift cards, the fraudsters took details of these gift cards from them and converted them into Indian currency via online transactions, with the help of their accomplices. “Investigation is on to find out how many persons have been cheated by the operators of the fake call centre. A probe is on to find out whether there are more persons involved in the crime,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (cyber) Sambhaji Kadam. In a similar case in February 2018, the Pune City Police’s Cyber Crime Cell had busted a ‘night call centre’ in Koregaon Park area for allegedly cheating over 11,000 American nationals by pretending to be officials of the Internal Revenue Services (IRS). Probe had revealed that the fraudsters procured personal details including names, addresses, emails and contact numbers of American citizens and sent them bulk voice messages, accusing them of being tax defaulters. When some of these American nationals called back, the fraudsters pretended to be IRS officers and asked the Americans to pay the tax or face punishment such as imprisonment and attachment of property. Police said that fearing action, some Americans asked the fraudsters to settle the issue. The fraudsters then asked them to purchase gift vouchers of various brands from nearby shops and pass on the voucher numbers. Later, the fraudsters sent these voucher numbers to their accomplices in Gujarat and got it converted to Indian currency.
