Kolkata: Fake call centre busted, 11 arrested – Times of India

KOLKATA: The anti-rowdy section of the detective department has arrested 11 men from an office at the IT Park on Taratala Road for allegedly running a fake customer care service of an American e-commerce giant. The gang, claimed police, wanted to take advantage of the two-day sale offered by the e-commerce giant and targeted hundreds of customers.
The usual targets for this gang were UK citizens whom they used to call as representatives of the e-commerce giant. “The accused would pose as employees of the company and make calls to the United Kingdom for conducting a lifestyle survey. They used VoIP calls each time,” a police officer said.
The accused hail from Beniapukur, Tiljala and Watgunge areas (some are also from Budge Budge and Mahershtala). All the accused are aged between 19 and 36. “On July 26, a raid was conducted on the third floor of the IT Park. During the raid, it was established that an illegal call centre was running from there,” stated joint CP (crime) Murlidhar Sharma.
“The usual modus operandi of these gangs is to send fake messages to phone numbers and email IDs of e-commerce customers, telling them that $1,000 had been credited to their accounts. When the customer calls back to know more about it, the accused threatens him or her, saying their security number has been hacked. The target would then be made to pay up in form of gift vouchers from the company store, which the accused would redeem later. We are ascertaining if a similar modus operandi was followed here or they employed a different plan,” said an officer.