BPOs centre of cyber fraud: Delhi Police

The Delhi Police claims that the cyber fraudsters find new ways to dupe people and the master mind behind the scams are mostly absconding while the chance or recovery of money is almost next to impossible.

According to the police, the entire scam starts by renting a floor or an office space which requires 10 to 15 computer systems. To avoid being tracked down, the fake centres keep changing their locations from time to time.

Earlier, most of the fake call centres in Delhi were reportedly in areas such as Tilak Nagar, Janakpuri, Vikaspuri, Uttam Nagar and Karol Bagh. However, with verification processes becoming strict, operators have started moving to NCR.

HOW THEY OPERATE

As per the police information these fraudsters work in the team of four: 

Team one: The first team fishes the people- makes calls and have all the data basis of the caller. The calls which we receive are either internet call or from mobile numbers registered on fake id's. One can get calls from international numbers as well which are diverted calls. Making it difficult for the police to track them. 

Team two: The second team gets the bank accounts ready. They open several bank accounts through fake id's which they use for transactions. For which they hire villagers and get their accounts opened and in return they give them some percentage of the transactions.

Team three: After which they hire people to take out the cash from those accounts. The hired people are clueless about the money they are taking out. 

Team four: The people who take out the money hand over the cash to the zonal heads or coordinator which then distribute the money among the partners. The zonal in-charges take care of all the process. Most of the zonal in-charges have worked in BPO's as they have knowledge of the entire process.

According to the police, arresting owners or coordinators of these fake call centres is really difficult. While most of those arrested so far are those 10/15 people who make calls and are unaware of the fact that they are duping people.

Chances of recovering the money of the complainants are almost next to impossible. Police said that they operators cheat people from other state so the FIRs are lodged outside Delhi and Noida allowing them to operate with relative ease. Later, they would withdraw the money using ATM cards and stop taking calls from the victim.

Police said that most of the scams busted so far seem to have followed a same modus operandi.

People were cheated after their data was accessed from online portals, followed by calls in the name of : 

Offering jobs: The people would gather details of people looking for jobs through websites featuring employment opportunities and then call them up with job offers. They create a fake website and lured jobless people by offering them work in banks. Ask them for money in the name of processing fee and even send them fake job offer letters. 

Insurance: The workers call up people and tell them that their insurance policy has lapsed. They would ask them to pay some the amount to get it renewed and also assure them of doubling the money. 

Honey trap: From posing as businessmen looking for an investment opportunity in India to laying honey traps, fraudsters are increasingly targeting people through social networking sites.

People look for profiles of women in the 35 to 45 years age bracket. They befriend them, and later ask for money by weaving a fake story. The initial point of contact is Facebook messenger. Later, they share local mobile numbers, whose SIMS are registered under fake names, making it difficult for police to trace them. Later befriended the woman through a social networking site, and gained her trust by showing sympathy as she is hearing and speech impaired. They say that they would send her gifts, such as laptop, mobile phone, jewellery etc.

Later, the woman receive a text stating that her parcel had arrived in New Delhi and that she could claim it by depositing a customs clearance and courier fee of Rs xyz. Over the next fortnight, the victim would receive several messages asking her to deposit different fee of varying amounts. By the time, she realised that she was being duped. 

Tax Reforms and benefits : In this most of the foreign people are duped. The call centre employees would make phone calls to US or UK citizens and tell them that they are representatives of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the federal government and duped them in the name of tax reforms and benefits.

The accused would tell their targets things like they are under 'burden of services and loans' and should pay some amount if they wanted relief under IRS provisions, The accused used to pose as representatives of the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), which administers tax laws in the country, to dupe people in the name of tax benefits.

For this the call centre hires workers from the Northeast because of their English dialect which they found better to befool the targets If the targets would not relent or fall in their trap, the accused would even threaten them of legal action by the government for tax violations. 

Donation: The call centre employees ask for donations for treatment of the poor. They create a fake website in the name of NGO and for money to help poor patients and underprivileged children including those suffering from AIDS and physical amputations. They would even accept donations online and through mobile wallet but did not give receipt to donors.

SHIFT OF DEN

• Earlier, most of the fake call centres in Delhi were reportedly in areas such as Tilak Nagar, Janakpuri, Vikaspuri, Uttam Nagar and Karol Bagh. 
   
• However, with verification processes becoming strict, operators have started moving to NCR.