Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Former call centre workers arrested for cheating Britons

They used their call centre skills to impersonate as employees of UK banks to cheat Britons by luring them into obtaining unsecured loan and fleecing them of the processing fee.
But their luck ran out after Crime branch arrested five members of a gang which was running an illegal call centre from a rented house in Shakti Vihar in Pitampura following a complaint from British High Commission.
The Commission in his complaint said that UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has received information that illegal call centres were calling Britons by impersonating as employees of British banks and financial institutions.
Police arrested 26-year-old kingpin of the gang Anshuman Srivastava, hailing from Rajaji Puram of Lucknow, 21-year-old Pawan Singh of Uttam Nagar, 20-year-old Sumit Kumar and Ashu, 23, both residents of Jahangirpuri, and 27-year-old Amit Singh of Rohini's Budh Vihar locality after a tip off on Friday last.
During interrogation, they said all of them had worked in call centres in Delhi and Gurgaon.
"They lost their job due to recession in call centre business few years ago, like many other young persons. However, by the time they left, they had learned the tricks of the trade and realised that overseas customers make payments for required services without creating unnecessary hassles," a police official said.
"The gang was operating in the name of 'Wisdom Calling' from the house taken on rent by Srivastava. Police recovered a laptop, four desktop computers and documents along with record of UKASH vouchers from the gang members," said S B S Tyagi, DCP Crime and Railways.
They had managed to make around Rs 90 lakh through the fraud in last one year.
Giving details of their modus operandi, Tyagi said, the accused used to lure victims into getting unsecured loans as well as claim of payment protection insurance (PPI).
After victims agreed to their offer, they directed them to transfer 10 per cent of the amount as processing fee for sanctioning the loan or claim of PPI.

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