Bogus call centre busted in Gurugram, three arrested

Gurugram, June 4 A fake call centre was busted here and three people arrested for allegedly duping foreign nationals by creating false legal pressure in the name of the US central banking system, the Federal Reserve System (FRS), Gurugram police said on Friday.

Police said that the fraudsters used to cheat US nationals for resolving Social Security Number (SSN) verification issues and used to ask for $200 to $500 as service charge per client.

According to the police, SSN is a nine-digit number that the US government issues to all its citizens. The government uses this number to keep track of the residents' lifetime earnings and the number of years worked.

The bogus call centre was running for the last two months. The fraudsters posed as legal department employees to dupe their clients.

According to the police, a team from the Cyber Crime police station led by ACP Karan Goyal raided the call centre which was located in Suncity Success Tower, Sector 65, Golf Course Road, following a tip-off.

During the raid, the police arrested three persons and seized three laptops and mobile phones, along with other electronic gadgets and a five page script the accused used to communicate with their clients.

The arrested were identified as Devang Awasthi, the owner of the call centre, and his two partners identified as Harsh Bhavsar and Abhishek, all residents of Ahmedabad.

"A complaint was received that this fake call centre in Suncity Area had cheated several US nationals by creating a false legal pressure on the name of the FDR and on pretext of to resolve SSN related problems. The youths were employed at the call centre, which was being operated without a license issued by the Department of Telecommunications," said the ACP.

"During the questioning, the employees revealed that the data of US citizens was provided by their owner, who had purchased the data through an online websites and used to upload on his server VICI dialer and used to sent bulk messages to around 3 to 4 thousands US citizens on daily basis," the ACP said.

"The matter is under investigation and involvement of other people cannot be ruled out," the officer added.