Police busted a call centre in Indore for cheating US nationals by delivering fake warnings of blocking their social security card and collecting $500 to $4,000 per person as fine. The call centre racket was run by two engineering graduates from Ahmedabad.
Police said that they arrested 22 people on Tuesday working in the call centre at Vardhman buildings in Lasudia locality of Indore. Indore police DIG Harinarayan Chari said that the accused have been booked under charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy. The fraudsters had recruited nearly four dozen employees on a salary of Rs 30,000 per month. These English-speaking youth were then trained to speak in American accent and conduct themselves in a manner that make them look like American nationals.
The modus operandi of the people working in the call centre was to call US nationals posing as officials of the United States social department. They obtained details and phone numbers of the persons registered under social security schemes of US from dark-net. The call centre employees posing as US social department officials called unsuspecting US residents saying that their social security is number is being misused by other people.
They were warned that their social security facility could be withdrawn and if they wanted to protect their social security card they should get a new number issued. The social security number includes information about bank accounts, medical facilities and other government facilities.
In return of a new number, the gullible targets were asked to deposit money to an account ranging from $500 to $4,000. Police said the associates of arrested kingpin Vatsal Mehta, 25, ran similar rackets in other cities of the country.
In Indore, Mehta has entrusted the responsibility of call centre to his friend Karan Bhatt who also acted as floor manager to control two dozen men during a shift.
According to police, the call centre gang has collected nearly Rs two crore in last four months. Police also recovered over three lakh social security numbers of foreign nationals from the company's server.
The call centre employees collected money through recharge vouchers. The call centre possessed credit recharge vouchers of multi-nationals like Walmart and Amazon. They made their targets to transfer their money in recharge vouchers. The money received through these vouchers in dollars was converted into bitcoin through certain hawala operators of Gujarat.