NEW DELHI: Acting on the information from FBI in the United States, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday conducted searches at multiple locations in Delhi in connection with their investigation into “mobile call centres” being operated in the city. Over Rs 3 crore was recovered during searches and at least four suspects were detained. The syndicate was duping foreign nationals in the name of providing tech support.While discovering the new modus operandi, CBI sleuths found that the syndicate was not only changing its location of operation every 1-2 months to dodge surveillance but was also using a complete new set of equipment at the next place. “Investigation has revealed that the suspects were using rented laptops and other devices to dupe people abroad. They used to give the devices back to the shops after wiping them clean,” said a source.“The searches were conducted at four of the premises of the accused, which led to recovery of foreign currencies and INR worth Rs 3,09,64,100 apart from 15 mobile phones and seven laptops,” CBI spokesperson RC Joshi said.The devices contained remote access applications, TextNow app for calling, fake international calling numbers, incriminating documents pertaining to US nationals, crypto investments, chats containing details of the fraud and scripts for talking to US citizens.The agency also stumbled upon a fake tech-support call centre where the accused were allegedly cheating the US citizens by impersonating as tech support executives.“They were allegedly receiving leads from their source and on these leads, they would call potential targets in the USA via TextNow application and take control of their systems using remote access software like AnyDesk on the pretext of solving issues,” the spokesperson further said.“They would then guide the targets to buy a gift card for installing/ upgrading the security software (which was never actually done) and take the card number from them. It was also alleged that the gift card numbers taken from the targets were sent to an exclusive telegram group for cash redemption through hawala channels,” Joshi added.CBI had begun investigating the racket last year in June after registering an FIR against four suspects identified as Harish Kumar, Amit Kumar, Rakesh Kumar Athotra and Raj Kumari.The case was registered on the basis of allegations that the accused had fraudulently gained remote access to the digital resources of unsuspecting victims of the USA and transferred the digital assets and crypto currencies from the wallets/accounts of the victims to their wallets.US-based agencies provided crucial tip-offs and information like IP addresses. More suspects will be arrested in the coming days, sources said.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/how-mobile-call-centres-in-delhi-duped-foreigners-of-crores/articleshow/97991292.cms