The Karnataka Police have busted a call centre racket operating out of Bengaluru that used to target US citizens. The fraud call centre's activities involved cheating gullible people in the US by obtaining their bank details and siphoning off the money. At least 72 employees of the call centre racket, including the kingpins from Gujarat, were taken into custody in the operations conducted by teams from the Whitefield and Mahadevapura police stations.
Two software firms, Ethical Infotech Pvt Ltd and Gayathri Tech Park, which acted as a front for fraudulent call centres were raided by the Whitefield and Mahadevapura police in Bengaluru on July 7.
The call centre targeted gullible US citizens and tricked them into believing that their bank accounts have been compromised. They would send messages through text, voice and email that a suspicious activity has been noticed on their e-commerce accounts or bank accounts. They would further trick them into thinking that the callers are reaching out from the respective companies to resolve the issue. During this process, the callers would convince the victims to share their social security account numbers and bank account details and siphoned off money through modes such as cryptocurrency, Amazon gift cards and wire transfers.
The racket employed young graduates mainly from Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi, Gujarat and Rajasthan. The companies offered the employees free accommodation in paying guest facilities around Whitefield and also gave them free transportation. The vehicles used for this purpose were vans disguised as school vans with fake names.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Shanthmallappa, received the tip-off that sensitive data of US residents was being collected and misused. The Mahadevapura police seized 132 desktops worth Rs one crore and Rs 15 lakh in cash. Similarly, the Whitefield police have seized 127 desktops, four laptops, 150 headphones, six internal hard disks, six Apple phones, three expensive cars and two school vans. The total value of the seized items was Rs 2 crore apart from Rs 18 lakh in cash.
With IANS inputs