4 held in Delhi for duping Spanish citizens by posing as Microsoft executives: Police

New Delhi, January 14

Four men have been arrested for allegedly duping citizens based in Spain by posing as executives of Microsoft Corporation and providing them company-related services, police said on Thursday.

The accused, identified as Imran (25), Mohammad Tauqueer Kidwai (27), Mohammad Azam (27) and Deepak Lal (27), operated a fake call centre in southeast Delhi’s Ashram area from where calls were made to the citizens based in Spain, using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), police said.

According to the police, the accused hired people who worked at the call centre and made calls to their targets in Spain and duped them by offering them services related to Microsoft Corporation.

They had even set up a toll-free number on which they got calls from Spain but instead of receiving them, they would call them back to reduce cost and invoice on their toll-free number, police added. 

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) RP Meena said, “On Wednesday, we got a tip off that some people were running an online cheating racket at Ashram and targeting foreigners in Spain by posing as executives of Microsoft Corporation. It also came to our notice that the fraudsters were engaged in using illegal techniques like VoIP calling.”   

The accused used to cheat those based in Spain by promising them services of Microsoft Corporation, he said.

A raid was conducted at the call centre in Ashram where many people were engaged in making and receiving calls. One of the accused, Mohammad Tauqueer Kidwai, present at the spot, accepted that he was the owner of the call centre and also runs a property and a travel agency, the officer said.

A case was registered and during the course of investigation, five email accounts, four laptops and 10 hard discs from 10 CPUs, which were being operated by the accused, were seized from the spot, he said.

Ten other people also joined the investigation but they were released after notices were served to them to join the investigation in future if required, the police said. PTI