The cybercrime unit of Delhi Police on Sunday busted an illegal call centre and arrested 42 persons from Peera Garhi here.
The accused posed as personnel from various law enforcement agencies to cheat and extort money from unsuspecting foreign nationals, said a police officer. They induced them to transfer money through Bitcoins and gift cards. He added that the accused used an elaborate written script to dupe more than 3,500 persons of around ₹70 crore.
A team was formed and a raid was conducted. Forty two, including 26 men and 16 women were arrested. “The accused persons used to contact foreign nationals based in the U.S. and other countries impersonating various law enforcement agencies and other government agencies such as the Social Security Administration, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the US Marshals Service, etc. and tell them that their bank accounts and other assets are being frozen as their details have been found at a crime scene and there are bank accounts running in their names using which illegal transactions have been made to drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia. They also threatened the victims with immediate arrest,” said Anyesh Roy, DCP (CyPAD).
Two options
Mr. Roy said the accused offered the victims an alternate dispute resolution (ADR) and asked them to share all the details of their assets, including bank accounts and the amount of money in those accounts. Next, the victim would be told that there is only one way to safeguard their assets; they would have to either buy Bitcoins or Google gift cards worth all the money in their accounts.
If the victim agreed to buy Bitcoins, the accused induced them to convert all the money in their accounts into Bitcoins and transfer the same to the wallets operated by the accused persons, saying that it is a safe government wallet. If the victim agreed to buy gift cards, they induced them to share the number of the cards stating that it will be linked to their new bank accounts and thus, be safe.
Most of the accused are graduates from various colleges across the country. They had come to Delhi in search of jobs. The case is under investigation and help is being obtained from the labs of CyPAD to retrieve crucial digital evidence. Efforts are being made to identify the involvement of others.
