Fake call centre case: Data leaked by 3rd party agency, says Ahmedabad cops
‘Accused may also have got data from credit card dept’
The cyber cell of the Ahmedabad crime branch is looking into the source of the data used by the key accused in a fake call centre case to dupe thousands of people, mostly senior citizens.
The accused had sourced information about credit card users and debit card users, and with that data they started calling people and duping them. The officials suspect that there are two ways through which the accused got the information to which only banks have access.
Investigators believe that the accused must have gotten the data either from the credit department of a bank or through third-party agencies that are hired by banks for verification of credit card details. The police have started an investigation to uncover the link. The police said the accused had 60 bank accounts, which were used to transfer the money. These accounts were created by providing fake documents, according to investigators. Officers believe that the accused used documents of people to open the accounts and gave them a cut.
Eleven people were arrested on Tuesday after the cyber cell busted the fake call centre racket. Pretending to be bank officers, the gang used to target senior citizens.
The call centre was based out of Vikaspuri area in the national Capital. The cops said the accused managed to get the first eight digits of debit and credit cards, and with that they duped people using Visa, Mastercard, RuPay and American Express cards. The gang made around 1.2lakh calls and duped at least 25,000 people. Investigation further revealed that the call centre belongs to one Vivek Rajveer, a native of Bihar and based out of Delhi. He is absconding and a search for him is underway.
FAKE CALL CENTRE
July 30 Ahmedabad Cyber Cell nab nine accused from Delhi, who used to run an illegal call centre in Delhi and used to dupe people of other states by luring victims with prizes. The accused had duped at least 500 people from different states.
Sept 1 Ahmedabad Cyber Cell nab three people from the French colony in Delhi for running a fake call centre and duping hundreds of people across the country as bank officers.
They also seized 500 mobile phones, 184 sim cards, 1 laptop, six boxes of gift vouchers were seized.
We have come to know that the accused acquired the credit and debit card details through the banks or from a third party with whom there was a contract of verification process. We are trying to trace the source who passed on the information to the accused. This will help us point out exactly how many people were a victim of information leak.— VB Barad, inspector, cyber crime cell of Gujarat.