International gangs of cyber criminals arrested in Guwahati; 8 call centres operating to dupe national and international victims busted; the scam raises concerns about national security
Jamtara city in the Indian state of Jharkhand has recently gained notoriety for being a hub of organised cybercrime activities, particularly in the form of phishing scams. The Jamtara fraud involves a group of scammers who pose as representatives of legitimate companies. Guwahati is gradually turning into Jamtara as the recent bust of cybercrime in the city by police reveals that Guwahati has turned into a hub of cybercrime in the northeast region.
International Gang of Scammers who have been duping gullible Indians and foreign nationals by impersonating genuine “Tech Support Staff” were arrested by city police in many raids conducted by the police.
In a press statement, the city police said, “A reliable intelligence input was received that some scammer gangs are operational in Guwahati,” adding that the gangs were involved in operating Call Centres across India and are scamming and cheating gullible Indians and foreign nationals by impersonating as Tech Support Staff.
Talking about the modus operandi the police said that the gangs used to originate “Tech Support” Pop-Ups in the personal computers of the victims, and by impersonating legitimate Customer Service Representatives, to deceive individuals and cheat them of their money or personal information, they trained representatives of the gangs made various false claims to create a sense of urgency or fear that the Bank Account has been compromised, the computer has a virus, personal identifiable information are at risk, computer or social media account has been hacked.
The gang of scammers initiate contact through unsolicited phone calls, claiming to be from a well-known company or organization, such as a bank, Tech Support, Government Agency or even a popular Online service provider. They ask the victims to install remote Desktop Software and thereby take access to the victim’s personal computers and thereafter steal personal information by planting malware on the targeted victim’s devices. These scammers also opened fake Toll Free Numbers (TFNs) where if dialled by anyone the calls land at the Call Centres run by these scammers.
Upon receiving such calls, the trained callers engage the caller in such a way by going through the prepared transcript of such conversation resulting in forcing the gullible victims to part away with their hard-earned money or personal information thereby duping those gullible Indian and foreign nationals.
Based on the inputs received, a confidential enquiry was conducted by the city police and identified the masterminds who were instrumental in operating the scam in Guwahati. The locations of a few such Call Centres from where the Cyber Criminals were operating were identified. Accordingly, multiple police teams under the leadership of senior police officers were formed and simultaneous raids were conducted against the targets as well as against the gangs operating from Call Centres. During the raid at multiple locations, eight such Call Centres were busted. Two of the masterminds who managed to escape from Guwahati by road on a rented car, after getting a hint of the Police action, were apprehended late at night yesterday at a place near Bhabanipur, Bajali with the help of Bajali District Police.
The police said that the gangs while operating from the call centres made sure that not a single ray of light is visible inside the building from outside to avoid any suspicion. The gangs recruited educated and unemployed youths (both males and females) in the name of providing them employment in Call Centre and engaging them in the crime.
Employees detained in such Call Centres during the raids were found to be from States like Punjab, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura.
Monetary transactions from the victims are mostly in the form of Bitcoins or in the form of Gift Vouchers. All these Bitcoins and Gift Vouchers are encashed/redeemed into Indian Rupees with the help of International Hawala Gangs.
Hard cash came from outside the State for running these Call Centres in Guwahati and also to make payments to the employees through Hawala Channels.
The monthly turnover of an average Call Centre runs into several crores, said the police.
The police said, “All these Scam Call Centres are in a way running an illegal internet-based telephone exchange for making International calls which is a cause of concern for National Security.”
The call centres busted in Guwahati were located at Bamunimaidam (Backside of Sicedom), Mono-motors Building at Bamunimaidam, VIP Road, Borbari (Opposite Trust Motors), Outshine Solutions at Zoo Tiniali, Above AG Medicare, Rajgarh Road, ABC Point, Near Hotel D-Agni Dip, Christian Basti and Guwahati Central, Zoo Road. The masterminds arrested were Debajyoti Dey@David, 31 years, originally from Karimganj District, at present resides at Jayanagar, Rajan Sidana, 39 years, Ludhiana, Punjab and Divyam Arora, 31 years, Delhi.
144 male employees in the gang and 47 female employees were detained by police and the police are interrogating them to get other details. If required some of them will be arrested.
City police commissioner Diganta Barah talking to the media said, “To some extent, there are few employees who are victims. For the sake of money, they joined such institutions and had to face the brunt of it. Unfortunately, they were wrapped into this just because of employment and money."
It needs to be mentioned that according to police sources son of a former IAS officer might have links to the scam.
It needs to be mentioned that there might be other call centres still active in the city with a similar modus operandi as police are still in search of some more masterminds.