Illegal call centre busted in Vikaspuri, six arrested

The Delhi Police claimed to have busted an illegal call centre claiming to extend credit card limits in Vikaspuri, with the arrest of six of its members, officials said on Sunday.

The arrests have been made from Delhi, Haryana and Telangana, the police said. The accused called private bank credit card holders in the name of extension of credit limit and generation of new PINs. They used to send APK files to the customers’ phones and get access to mobile phone, including SMS. Thereafter, they carried out unauthorised transactions and transferred money to accounts operated by them.

According to the police, 95 complaints linked to the mobile numbers recovered in the case were traced on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal. The complaints involved losses of about Rs 85 lakh.

Acting on a complaint from Virender Kumar, a resident of Bindapur, a case was registered at the Cyber police station, Dwarka, on June 21. He reported unauthorised transactions of Rs 2.81 lakh from his newly issued credit card after receiving such a call.

Investigators found that the money was used to buy six mobile phones from an e-commerce website using a fake account. These phones were later sold to retail shops. Technical surveillance led the police to the call centre in Vikaspuri and associates in Hyderabad and Panipat who provided SIM cards and mule bank accounts.

Raids were carried out in Delhi and Hyderabad. The police arrested Vijay Kumar Sharma, operator of the call centre, along with Moolchand Mishra, Gaurav and Hemant, in Delhi. Amit was arrested in Hyderabad for arranging fake SIM cards and mule accounts, while Pradeep Sahu was arrested in Panipat for procuring SIM cards.