With the arrest of 19 people, including seven women, the Delhi Police on Wednesday claimed to have busted a gang involved in cheating American citizens on the pretext of providing free grants and impersonating themselves as USA officials from Ministry of Finance Department.
The accused were operating through a call center which was being run in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar area.
According to Atul Kumar Thakur, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), South district, police got information through an e-mail regarding illegal call center was being running in Malviya Nagar area. Police conducted raid and nabbed the accused persons.
“The call center was running since January 2021 in a rented basement. Twenty-two computers were installed in the premises, out of which 15 systems were being used by the callers. Sixteen people were found engaged in calling the customers in USA impersonating as officials from Ministry of Finance Department who provide free grants to the selective citizens,” said the DCP.
“They were cheating people based in USA by using Vicidial through cloud servers, then talking to the customers on pretext of providing them free grants if the customer pays a fee of US$ 100 and US$ 200 or they induced the victims to provide the amount through gift cards or any other wallet,” the DCP said.
“On checking of computer systems, Vicidial calling software along with scripts were found opened on their screens. They were contacting the victims through the automated computer systems to dial the phone numbers one by one in sequential order from the list of numbers uploaded in cloud-based server to start and inducing the customers in the name of providing free grants after paying a basic fee,” said the DCP.
Two mobile phones were being used for the office or call-center. On examination of alleged persons, it was revealed that they were procuring victims gift cards illegally and cheating US citizens, police said.
On an average, three USA citizens were being cheated every day of around ` 50,000 to `75,000. Further investigation is underway, police said, adding that 22 computers, 21 mobile phones, etc. were recovered from their possession.