Eleven persons, working in two Whitefield-based call centres that were running phishing operations targeting bank customers in the United States have been arrested by Bengaluru police. All of them hail from Gujarat.
Ironically, the method adopted by the callers was to seek the bank account details of customers by flagging a potential fraudulent transaction in their accounts, and in turn steal money. The company was named “Ethical Infotech Pvt. Ltd.”
“Callers mainly targeted customers in the US and the modus operandi involved sending messages to potential targets through text messages, voice mail, etc. that a fraudulent/ suspect transaction or purchase has noticed in one of their accounts — such as a bank account or an Amazon account — and the call is being made on behalf of the vendor to resolve the fraudulent transaction,” said a statement from Whitefield Division Police.
“They would finally zero in on gullible people, and pursue them till they part with their social security numbers, bank account details, etc., and siphon off money through various means such as untraceable money transfer apps and cryptocurrency,” the statement said.
The raids were carried out after obtaining search warrants from the court on two premises of Ethical Infotech Pvt Ltd, one in Silver Soft Tech Park, EPIP, and another at Gayatri Tech Park, Whitefield, on Thursday night around 10 p.m.
The police arrested six persons, and seized 132 desktops and ₹15 lakh in cash from the premises at EPIP; and five persons from the Gayatri Tech Park premises, and recovered 127 desktops, 4 laptops, 150 headphones, 10 hard discs, and six mobile phones, besides ₹18 lakh in cash.
There were a total of 72 callers at both locations when the raids happened. Police said two kingpins hailing from Ahmedabad were running the scam and both have been arrested. The duo used to employ fresh graduates from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi to run these call centres.
The police said the raids on Thursday night followed a tip-off, and that the investigations were on going. The police are yet to ascertain the extent of the scam, for how long these call centres have been cheating customers in the US, and how they acquired banking and Amazon customer data.
