Three fake call centres busted in Panchkula IT Park

A joint team of the Police and Cyber Haryana raided three fake call centres operating in IT Park. A total of 85 individuals, including both owners and employees of the centres, were taken into custody for questioning.

The raids, which were carried out on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday and lasted from 12 am to 5 am, also led to the confiscation of 148 laptops, 78 mobile phones, 21 CPUs and 12.33 lakh cash from three raided premises.

Simultaneous raids at all three call centres, which were found to be engaged in systematic fraud targeting citizens abroad, particularly in the United States and Europe.

Preliminary probeindicates that around 10 of these individuals are prime accused, against whom FIRs are being registered. The police have now launched a deeper investigation to trace the wider network linked to them.

Investigations revealed that employees fluent in English posed as representatives of various service providers and helpdesk staff such as bank services, Netflix and other OTT services. The police revealed that they conned foreigners by saying their banking or OTT services have been discontinued and to restart it, a link was sent that would be used to retrieve their bank details or transfer money.

The victims were also lured with promises of free schemes and facilities, including fictitious programmes like “Obama Welfare Initiative”, falsely linked to India’s Below Poverty Line scheme to gain trust.

Once trust was established, victims were persuaded to share personal and banking details, which were later sold to organised crime groups. In some cases, victims were forced to purchase online coupons which were converted into Bitcoin, with money being routed through hawala networks.

Among the seizures, 62 laptops, 60 mobile phones and Rs 73,176 in cash were recovered from the iSpace Technologies Pvt Ltd. From the third “unnamed” call centre, police seized 18 mobile phones, 21 CPUs, one laptop and Rs 3.20 lakh in cash.

Three separate FIRs have been registered and interrogation of the accused is underway. Authorities believe the action has exposed a major cybercrime syndicate, with links likely extending beyond India.

The joint operation was executed through three teams led by DCP Crime and Traffic Manpreet Singh Sudan. These included top officials from the Cyber Police Station, Chandimandir Police Station, Crime Branch Sector 26, Cyber Haryana and Detective Staff.

DGP reiterates commitment to public safety

Director General of Police Shatrujeet Kapur congratulated the teams on the successful mission and said it demonstrates the police’s resolve to combat cybercrime. He emphasised that such operations strengthen public confidence and ensure a sense of security among citizens.

He assured that Haryana Police will continue to adopt a tough stance against cyber criminals and will launch special drives in future to dismantle such networks.