Call centre busted for allegedly defrauding elderly Japanese nationals; 5 held
Police have arrested five people for allegedly running a call centre in Mughalsarai that targeted elderly Japanese nationals by gaining access to their computers and mobile phones and siphoning off large amounts of money, officials said.
About Rs 9 lakh kept in two bank accounts belonging to one of the accused has been frozen, police said.
Additional Superintendent of Police (Sadar) Vikram Dahiya said the accused primarily targeted elderly people in Japan. They allegedly contacted victims through Zoiper, an internet-based calling application, and screen-sharing software before gaining their trust and infecting their computers or mobile phones with viruses.
The accused allegedly used one-time passwords sent to the victims' phones to access their banking details. The money was then transferred to bank accounts in Japan or China and subsequently brought back to India through hawala channels, Dahiya said.
Police are tracing the financial transactions to determine where the proceeds of the alleged fraud, estimated to be worth crores of rupees, were transferred.
The call centre was operating from the third floor of a showroom building in Kailashpuri in Mughalsarai. A joint team of Mughalsarai police, SWAT, surveillance and cyber units raided the premises on Wednesday after a case was registered on September 29, Dahiya said.
The gang allegedly used tourist centres in Gaya to establish contact with Japanese visitors. The call centre manager, who was among those arrested, had learnt Japanese and allegedly posed as a Japanese national while speaking to victims.
The accused allegedly received calls from Japan through Zoiper and carried out the fraud between 7 am and 2 pm, Dahiya said.
The arrested accused were identified as call centre manager Raunak Singh, 32, and workers Roshan Kumar, 21, Aman Kumar, 23, Ankit Kumar, 25, and Vikas Vaibhav, 25. All of them are residents of Bihar, police said.
During the raid, police seized 19 computer monitors, 20 CPUs, 19 keyboards, headphones, mice, six mobile phones, forged documents and Aadhaar cards bearing Varanasi addresses.
Police said the alleged gang leader is still absconding and efforts are underway to trace him. (with inputs from PTI)
