Haryana Chief Minister’s flying squad late on Tuesday night busted an illegal call centre operating in Sector-28 in Gurugram.
The call centre mostly used to cheat US nationals on the pretext of to resolve Social Security Number (SSN) verification and used to charge 100 to 500 dollars as service charge per client, the police said on Wednesday.
The accused had also paid `2.50 lakh as house rent for two months. According to the police a SSN is a nine-digit number that the U.S. government issues to all U.S. citizens. The government uses this number to keep track of the resident’s lifetime earnings and the number of years worked.
While duping their clients, they used to introduce themselves as SSN department employees. According to the police, a team from the CM flying squad led by ACP Inderjeet raided the call centre which was located at plot number 558, Sector-28 in Gurugram following a tip-off.
During the raid, the police arrested two persons in connection with the matter and seized 7 hard disks along with other electronic gadgets.
The arrested persons have been identified as Anurag Tiwari and Kirti Kumar Keshav, residents of Jind district in Haryana. However, the owner of the fake call center Lokender fled the spot. He is reportedly a resident of Ahmedabad.The arrested duo were the co-partners of the fake call centre.
During the raid, the police had spotted 4 women and 22 men including the arrested suspects, who were working at the fake call center and were communicating with US nationals. However, after questioning the police have released youths who were working there. “A complaint was received that the fake call centre had cheated several US nationals on the pretext of resolving SSN related problems in Sector- 28 area. The youths were employed at the call centres, which were being operated without a license issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DOT),” said Inderjeet ACP, (CM flying squad).
“During the questioning, the accused revealed that they used to communicate with US citizens to resolve the SSN verification process they used to charge nearly 100 to 500 dollars per client as service charge via bank account," he added.
“The matter is under investigation. How the accused was operating the fake call centre it’s a part of an investigation. The involvement of other people cannot be ruled out,” the officer said.
In connection with the incident, an FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the IT Act has been registered at Cyber crime police station for further investigation.
