Noida | The Noida police on Sunday arrested six more people in connection with the busting of a fake call centre, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 79, officials said.
They said the call centre -- operating from Bhutani Anthum building in Sector 90 -- was busted on Saturday by the police. It was allegedly being used to dupe money from American citizens, the officials said.
Sunday's arrests were also made by a team of the local Sector-142 police station, and the operation led to the seizure of Rs 45 lakh cash, a police spokesperson said.
On June 29, an FIR (First Information Report) under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) and 66 of the IT Act was registered at Sector-142 police station.
Acting on electronic surveillance and technical evidence, police on Sunday apprehended the main accused, Bhupendra Singh Pundeer alias Bunty, Saurabh Singh, Shubham Upadhyay, and Patel Vandan. Two other accused, Ankit Thakur and Rohan Dilip Sandal, were also arrested from the vicinity.
A police spokesperson explained the modus operandi, "The accused used computers for tele-calling through IVR to contact American citizens, exploiting their social security numbers to deceive them into paying money through gift cards or cryptocurrency. The call center employees impersonated U.S. Marshals to intimidate the victims, claiming they were involved in criminal activities linked to their social security numbers. They then demanded money to avoid further legal actions."
The call centre used various software and dialers to receive calls that were routed by the call center owner, the official said.
"Once a call was connected, the floor operators posed as US Marshals, scaring the American citizens by alleging their involvement in crimes associated with their social security numbers. This intimidation led to fraudulent extraction of money via gift cards and cryptocurrency," the official said.
The primary accused have been identified Bhupendra Singh Pundeer alias Bunty, 36, Saurabh Singh, 36, Shubham Upadhyay, 32, Patel Vandan, 33, Ankit Thakur, 25, and Rohan Dilip Sandal, 24, the police said.
