Fake call centres in Mira Road raided for duping US tax payers

Fake call centres in Mira Road raided for duping US tax payers

FPJ BureauUpdated: Thursday, May 30, 2019, 12:15 PM IST
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772 people rounded up, 70 held; other suspects served notices under CrPC

Bhayander : In what is being termed as the largest ever financial fraud of its kind, the Crime Branch unit 1 of the Thane city police carried out simultaneous raids at three fake call centres in Mira Road for targeting US citizens.

The culprits aggressively demanded money towards tax defaults by posing as officials from the US Internal Revenue Services (IRS).

The action followed after a specific tip-off that some gangs were using call centre skills to impersonate IRS officers and making calls to foreign nationals using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) demanding immediate payment for overdue taxes in order to avoid legal actions.

According to Parambir Singh, Thane Police Commissioner, “The fraudsters usually demanded an amount of $10,000 towards payment of tax debt but later reduced it to a few hundred dollars. They opted for iTunes gift cards as mode of payment.”

Out of the 772 people who were rounded up during the raids, 70 were taken into custody, while others — mostly tele-callers, holders and closers — were served with notices under the relevant sections of the CrPC, asking them to appear before the ­police officials during the stipulated time slots.

A team comprising of 160 police personnel, including 40 officials under the supervision of commissioner Parambir Singh, swooped down at the Hari Om IT Park in Penkarpada area of Kashimira, Universal Outsourcing Services at Bale House in Naya Nagar and a call centre operating from a rental premises in Ostwal House near Shivar Garden, Mira Road.

The raids began late on Tuesday night and continued till Wednesday afternoon. The arrested accused have been identified as Haider Ali Ayub Mansuri (24), Hamza Iqbal Balesar alias Shaheen (35), Vardhan Ulhas Gupta alias Kabir (26), Arjun Naresh Vasudev (24), Abdullah Shaukat Zariwala (22), Jhonson Supriyam Dentosa (24), Govind Manoj Thakur (24) and Ankit Anil Gupta (19).

“Apart from mobiles and electronic gadgets, including 851 hard disks, high-end servers and DVRs worth more than Rs.1crore, we have also recovered recorded voice calls with transaction details of the huge financial fraud,” said Singh. A case has been registered under sections-384, 419, 420, 34 of the IPC, section 72 (1) and 75 of the Information Technology Act and sections 25(k) of the Indian Telegraph Act.

Young collegians, dropouts roped in

Functioning in true corporate style, the call centre operators hired young collegians, unemployed youth and school dropouts on a monthly salary ranging from 12,000 to 18,000 rupees. Fluency in spoken English was the only required qualification.

The Hari-Om IT Park, which itself had seven different call centres on its premises, began recruiting staffers two months ago. According to the investigators, those hired were briefed about their job profile and were trained to speak in American accents.

Worried parents started gathering outside the centres on Wednesday morning when their children failed to return from work after night shifts and their phones remained unreachable.

“To fund his education, my 22-year-old son who is a TYBCom student had joined the centre just a month back. We are in a state of shock and disbelief. Our children are innocent. How could anyone know that such white collar people operating from posh offices are involved in such illegal activities?” questioned Saifullah Shaikh, a resident of Malad.

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