KANPUR: The Crime Branch busted a gang of fraudsters running an international call centre and arrested two persons after conducting a raid in the Hanspuram area under Naubasta police station, late on Thursday night.
The arrested men revealed that they used to cheat people of the United States in the name of getting personal loan and home loans. Laptops and hard disks and several gadgets with data of many US citizens have been recovered from the spot. It is said that the gang was operating here for the last six months.
ADCP Crime Deepak Bhuker said the arrested persons have been identified as Ravi Shukla and Vishal Singh Sengar, both residents of Hanspuram Naubasta. Three more persons were working at the call centre, however, they were let off as they had no role in the matter, said the police.
ADCP said that this call centre was being run at the home of one of the accused Vikas’s uncle. “The accused pretended to be a representative of American companies and lured US citizens in the name of offering home loans and personal loans at low interest rates. Two apps Xten and Xlife were used to make calls through VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). The number dialing was done using the software Text Now Sonotel and Soft Phone Dialer,” said ADCP further.
He said that the accused used to talk over phone and if someone fell into their trap then they used to take $200 from them in the name of processing fee. They used to send forms in the name of American companies and after gaining the confidence of victims they asked them to deposit four to five instalments of loan amounting to 500-600 dollars together on the pretext of zero interest on EMI.
Officials added that the two fraudsters had targeted 45 US citizens during the past six months and have duped many people of around Rs 70 lakh. The police have recovered laptops and hard drives containing data of 2.5 lakh US citizens. During interrogation, the two accused revealed that they had bought this data from an agency at Rs 2.5 per hundred persons.
Officials said that one of their partners operates from Noida and assisted them from there. “Their aide in Noida helped them in getting the money, which used to come from outside and then transact into their accounts. The accused have two accounts for transaction. Efforts are being made to arrest their Noida partner soon,” said the official.
