J&K: Cyber Police bust fake call centres, 23 arrested for duping people

Srinagar: Cyber Police Kashmir has busted fake call centres and arrested 23 persons who allegedly duped people by impersonating as executives of e-commerce companies on Wednesday (January 13).

Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone, Srinagar received information through reliable sources that some fake call centres are running in Kashmir Valley and accordingly the investigation into the instant matter was taken up by them. 

SP Tahir Saleem ( cyber cell ) said “During the course of the investigation, it is revealed that some individuals are impersonating as executives of multinational companies under the garb of bogus international call centres and are duping innocent citizens by offering them technical support and solutions to their software problems. 

Tahir added, “ These fake call centre executives were making cold calls, and send e-mails, pop-ups on computer screens of the victims and used to take the remote access of their computers and infect their systems with malware, thus starting extorting money from them in return for help by impersonating as technical support.”

“They also make use of electronic signatures of the victims for their illegal financial gains. These fake call centres would mostly call international citizens and demand their financial and bank details illegally so as to extort money from them to cause illegal gains for themselves and subsequent losses to victims.” Tahir added 

During the course of further investigation, it surfaced that there is a huge scam of fake call centres in Srinagar City, where a good number of employees are working round the clock. These fake call centres have been identified as are Secure Tech Rangreth Srinagar, YSS Micro Technologies Rangreth and Vertex Technology, Karfalli Mohalla Srinagar.

Acting swiftly Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone Srinagar constituted several teams in collaboration with District Police Srinagar and conducted multiple raids in Rangreth, Karfali Mohalla Habbakadal and Natipora areas of Srinagar. During these raids, 23 accused persons involved in the running of these illegal fake call centres were arrested.

In this regard, a case vide FIR No. 02/2021 under relevant sections of law stands registered at Cyber Police Station Kashmir Zone Srinagar and further investigation is in progress.

It’s pertinent to mention that fake call centres have become a full-fledged business in India and each unit earning between ₹5-20 lacs per day, depending upon the size of their set-up. 

These scammers are mostly cheating people staying in foreign countries by posing as technical support executive, insurance agents, law-enforcement officers, bank officials, online shopping sites etc.

The major issue is that young students are getting attracted to such call centres in lieu of the higher salary packages. These fake call centres earlier used to be limited to big cities only however, now they mushroomed in other parts of the country as well.