Call centre directors chargesheeted for 'defrauding' Britons

Three persons, including two call centre directors, have been charge-sheeted by the Delhi Police for allegedly cheating UK citizens online.

The Special Cell of Delhi Police charge-sheeted Yasheen Nagpal and Rajat Bhayana, the directors of call centre Max Infotech and their co-accused Saurabh Gupta, a free lancer in providing data of UK citizens, for allegedly cheating and hatching criminal conspiracy under the IPC and also under the provisions of the Information Technology Act.

In a voluminous charge sheet filed in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vidya Parkash, police said the trio were arrested on a complaint by the British High Commission here in September that Serious Organised Crime Agency of the UK has written to them regarding online fraud being conducted from India with UK citizens.

The complaint said some people in India are indulging in stealing confidential data regarding disbursement of unsecured loans from banks and financial institutions based at UK and using it to deceive and dishonestly induce UK citizens to part with their money for procuring unsecured loans.

The complaint said some call centres in Delhi were indulging in these activities and on its request the Special Cell deployed informers in West Delhi and North West Delhi.

One of the sources informed that such illegal activities are going on at the office of Max Infotech in Pitampura in North West Delhi and a raid was conducted.

The police said "the employees of the call centre were found making international calls to induce foreign nationals to give 'UKASH' vouchers for processing files of their unsecured loans" and arrested Nagpal and Bhayana from the spot.

The police said during interrogation and from the data recovered from the computers, it was revealed that the accused persons were cheating UK citizens for over past two years.

"They also disclosed that they used to procure personal data of UK citizens who are in need of unsecured loans from their other associates namely Deepak and co-accused Saurabh Gupta throuh e-mail and then Nagpal and Bhayana used to provide the data to their employees with directions to tell the receiver that they are having contract with foreign money- lending institutions namely 'Cheap Fast Loans', 'Money Lenders' and 'UK Financials' and that these companies provide unsecured loans to UK residents," the charge sheet said.

The accused portrayed that they are outsourcing for these companies and called with English pseudo names.

"The call centre employees used to tell them that their company is ready to give loan for which they had to purchase UKASH voucher and give the voucher number and PIN number to employee of Max Infotech as processing fee.

"Soon the employee of Max Infotech received voucher number from the UK citizen and handed it over to Yasheen and then the customer was told that the loan is in process," it said.

All the outgoing calls were made by voice over internet protocall (VOIP) and incoming calls were received through Skype, which are difficult to be monitored, the police said and added that the accused used to change their Skype number every fifteen days to avoid duped customers.

"The accused used to get the UKASH voucher PIN and pass it on to other associates and other international purchasers who in turn gave them Liberty Reserves (LR), a virtual currency used in international trade. Yasheen used to sell these LR to other associates and get the money back in Indian currency.

The police also said Saurabh was acting as a syndicate in the entire process and used to procure data from Lead Point website. It added he was also found utilizing UKASH vouchers on betting sites.

The probe agency has said it is still investigating the role of others in the matter.