Delhi Police arrests man for duping foreign nationals in fake air ticket refund scheme

New Delhi, Jun 25 (PTI) Delhi Police has arrested a 40-year-old man for allegedly running a fake call centre that targeted foreign nationals with a fraudulent airline ticket refund scheme, officials said on Wednesday.
     The accused, identified as Akshay Sharma, was operating under the name of a travel company, AVS Holidays, from Kirti Nagar in west Delhi, said the official.
     According to police, he and his associates duped citizens from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada by posing as a legitimate flight booking and cancellation service.
     The gang allegedly forged medical and death certificates of their victims to secure refunds for their tickets from airlines, police said. In some cases, victims were refunded partial amounts after fake deductions, while in others, no money was returned at all, they added.
     A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the IT Act at the Special Cell police station.
     Officials said Sharma used online advertisements and search engine manipulation to reach potential victims. He would ask for personal financial details such as card numbers and CVVs and then initiate refund requests by impersonating the customers.
     Acting on specific inputs, the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Special Cell conducted a raid on June 24 and arrested Sharma. During the operation, 36 laptops, six mobile phones, four external hard drives, and multiple forged documents were recovered, police said.
     During interrogation, Sharma confessed to running the scam for several years. He admitted to submitting forged documents and impersonating customers to claim refunds on their behalf.
     Police said further investigation is underway to identify other members of the racket and track the flow of illicit funds, they added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)