Fake call centres mushrooming in your neighbourhood

At the time cops from different states are troubled with cracking banking fraud calls coming from Jamtara district in Jharkhand, security agencies claim that mushrooming fake call centres in Delhi and NCR areas are more alarming. These fake call centres are involved in high-tech fraud ranging from offering fake jobs, insurance, holiday packages to siphoning money from bank accounts.

According to an estimate, many fake call centres with professional and technical staff are functioning in the national Capital and neighbouring Noida, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Haryana.

Police claim that scamsters in the Capital are becoming high-tech to sound more professional and also to remain out of the police net. While Jamtara consist of cluster of villages from where youths are making random fake calls from fields and forest posing as bank employees trying to get debit/credit card details.

This month in a joint operation with the Chattisgarh police, the Delhi police arrested six youths who were involved in fraud on the pretext of installing mobile tower.

"The gang's call centre was based in Rohini area. The mobile phone numbers, through which the calls were made, were procured on fake identity. All the bank accounts were also opened on fake identity.

Scamsters used to communicate through e-mails which were found ported through IP addresses of different countries like China and Sweden, making it difficult to track them," said a Crime Branch officer, who claims that arrest came after a month-long investigation.

A team of Vadodara, Trivandrum, Hyderabad, Pune, Uttar Pradesh and Mumbai police conducted recent raids in Delhi in connection with several cases of online frauds done by gangs active here.

New syndicates are getting more organised and well-planned by creating dedicated team for every work like procuring fake documents, arranging logistics like SIMs, phone connection, office on rent, computers, furniture and most importantly, data of gullible customers.

While those working in Jamtara district are working in small teams and are running card fraud racket using their mobile and computer. "Fraudulent calls coming from Jamtara is worrying. But, professional call centres in Delhi and NCR is the real worry as they have English-speaking staff with technical knowledge. They are trained in creating fake websites, fake documents to appear genuine and also posses latest computerised technology which are used by banks," said Triveni Singh, Additional Superintendent of Police, UP-STF.

Cops have also found that Jamtara scamsters used to work in various call centres of Delhi from where they learned technical know-how.

(In association with Mail Today Bureau)