CBI busts call centre defrauding US citizens, four held

“During search, a fake tech support call centre was found where the accused/other person was allegedly involved in online-cheating of US citizens impersonating the tech support executives. They were allegedly receiving leads from their source and on these leads they would call potential targets in the USA via Textnow application and take control of their systems using remote access software like Any Desk on the pretext of solving issues,” a CBI statement said.

“It was further alleged that they would then guide the targets to buy a gift card for installing/ upgrading the security software (which was never actually done) and take the card number from them. It was also alleged that the gift card numbers taken from the targets were sent to an exclusive telegram group for cash redemption through hawala channel,” it added.

The recoveries include 15 mobile phones, seven laptops containing remote access application, Textnow apps, fake international calling numbers, incriminating documents pertaining to US nationals, crypto investments, chats containing details of the fraud and scripts for talking to US citizens, the CBI said.

The agency had registered a case in this matter in June last year against four accused and unknown others on the allegations that the accused had fraudulently gained remote access to the digital resources of unsuspecting victims of USA and transferred the digital assets/crypto currencies from the wallets/accounts of the victims to their wallets.