Call centre rip-off cuts deeper

Shiv Kumar in Mumbai

SOMETIME late February this year, the US government's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reported a scale-up in the massive online data theft, saying hackers might have stolen at least 7 lakh American citizens' personal details such as the social security number and history of tax paid online. Thousands of miles away, most probably in Ahmedabad's Vastrapur locality, Sagar Thakkar, alias Shaggy (23), had a few ideas: how quickly could he make use of the theft and get rich? The Maharashtra police investigating the Rs 500-crore call centre fraud, say Thakkar was already into selling private data to fraudsters. His next move: set up call centres in Ahmedabad and then Mira Road, on the outskirts of Mumbai. The police have arrested over 70 persons for the fraud.

Thakkar and his sister who worked his finances are absconding — likely in Dubai — his high-end car have been seized and dozens of his school dropout friends who became his employees have been arrested. A Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) team will soon be in Maharashtra to help the Indian law-enforcement agencies in unearthing the scam. The Maharashtra police have already said the IRS call centre fraud has multi-state ramifications including in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka. 

How they worked

Police say the case came to light after a disgruntled employee sent an email to the authorities alleging a racket. Investigations reveal that call centre agents hired by the masterminds posing as officers from the Internal Revenue Service called American nationals from voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP)-enabled phones and accused them of evading income tax. After threatening their potential victims with raids, the callers asked them to buy debit cards like iTunes, which are available commercially in the US, and then forced them to part with the secret code. Funds from the debit cards were then siphoned off by the masterminds who presumably operated from the US.

Sources say the scamsters relied on the leaked IRS database available for a price. The police say the racketeers then transferred a part of their ill-gotten gains to India via the hawala route which was used to fund operational expenses, including salaries and incentives, to call centre agents, equipment and rental for the premises.

The police say the call centres were organized on professional lines with a part of the premises used to train fresh hires to speak in an American accent. The call centre agents were recruited via newspaper ads and hand-bills which asked for 10th pass students without experience to apply for jobs. Prepared scripts were used by professional trainers to coach the call centre agents in the techniques of persuading and even threatening potential victims into paying up.

Multi-city ops

Advocate Prashant Mali, who specializes in cyber law and is aiding the police crackdown, says the racket ran from Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Surat, Noida, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Thane. "We suspect that the call centres in other cities were hastily shut after the ones at Mira Road were busted," a police officer from the Thane crime branch told The Tribune. Police teams found multiple centres in Gujarat which were hurriedly closed and computers and other equipment hastily removed. 

The police have questioned 700-odd employees in dozens of call centres at Mira Road and Pune. While most of them have been made witnesses, 73 persons including two minors, have been made accused in the case. "We are questioning 13 persons including one director and some floor managers of a call centre," says Inspector Nitin Thakre from the Thane police. 

Hawala route

Police have also picked up some hawala operators who might have been used to transfer funds from the US. According to Prashant Mali, all those who were employed at the call centres were technically guilty of fraud. "The employees were fully aware of the fraud happening. In one of the transcripts of a conversation between an American citizen and an employee, the accused is heard saying 'I am officer Mike Anderson from IRS speaking.' And as the money was extracted after threats of false actions, a case of extortion and cheating is also clearly established," a police source said.

Mali says concerted action by FBI and Indian authorities was required. "Specific VoIP-based devices like magicJack used to route phone calls via the internet need to be monitored." He also felt that the police need to be more active in keeping track of call centres operating across the country. "I would advise the police of all states, to immediately ask all SPs & DCPs to make databases of all centres running in their areas and details of business they do. These huge frauds happening in any jurisdiction is because human intelligence failure or with the protection of police," Mali added.