According to the latest reports, an international call center in Kolkata was raided and 17 individuals were arrested by the Cyberabad Cybercrime team. Through VOIP calls, they were posing as executives of reputed antivirus software companies and cheating foreign nationals.
Cyberabad Police Commissioner M.Stephen Raveendra said the suspects sent bulk emails from fake email IDs to foreign nationals to generate leads (inbound calls) for illegal call centers in Kolkata. These illegal call centers charged foreign nationals Rs.250 per call received and a 25% commission on the amount collected by the call centers.
The phishing emails were usually forwarded in the name of an anti-virus software company asking them to renew their subscriptions. As soon as foreign nationals receive the mail, they contact the number mentioned in the mail, which is answered by tele-callers, Raveendra said.
Upon receiving calls from US citizens who are interested in renewing their services, the tele-callers convince them to take their paid services and make the US nationals pay the amount through a payment app (email-to-email money transfer), gift cards, and bank accounts in Peru, the USA, Thailand, and Singapore. Afterward, the gift cards were redeemed through Telegram channels and the money was transferred via Bitcoins from the bank accounts.
In June, Kolkata Police said to have also busted an illegal call center operating out of the Regent Park area of the city, arresting 12 people for allegedly duping foreign nationals, particularly US citizens, by offering to sell them various goods and services.
A raid was conducted on the ground floor of Ganesh Bhawan in Kolkata’s Chandi Ghosh lane on an intervening night of Thursday and Friday, acting on a tip-off, and 12 people were arrested for running an illegal call center. The accused used to defraud foreign nationals, a senior police officer said.
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