Punjab's 'Jamtara' cons US citizens, busted

Ludhiana, December 17

Swayed by the stories of making easy money from the hub of cybercrime, Jamtara in Jharkhand, a fake call centre came up in the city around two months ago and scammed US nationals of huge money. The centre was busted late last night following a raid by the city police.

At least 13 persons were arrested and Rs 1.70 lakh, 18 mobile phones, seven computers, a laptop and a Mahindra Thar were seized from their possession.

Mandeep Singh Sidhu, Ludhiana Police Commissioner, said acting on a tip-off, the police raided the call centre being run from a rented premises on the RK Road. The accused had been mainly targeting US citizens, he said.

The accused would first send bulk messages/emails to US citizens saying their bank had levied some penalty on their account and asking them to contact the mentioned “customer care” number. “On being contacted, the accused would take accounts details and later call them on behalf of PayPal, assuring them of reversing the penalty transaction. They would then convince the victims to buy gift cards required to recover the penalty amount and later use the details to redeem the gift card amount into their bank accounts,” Sidhu said. He said the money conned from US nationals was being put into the accounts of a fake firm named Balaji Info Service.

The accused were educated and fluent in spoken English, the police said.

Sub-Inspector Neeraj Chaudhary said Ankush was the key accused. “This centre was a branch of the main centre being run in Delhi. We have informed the Delhi police for necessary action,” he said.