Fake Call Centre Busted by Delhi Police; Three Arrested for Duping People on Pretext of Providing Loans

New Delhi, Dec 30: With the arrest of three men, Delhi Police on Friday claimed to have busted a fake call centre operating from Noida for duping people on pretext of providing loans on low interest, an official said on Friday.

The accused have been identified as Mohit Sharma (31), a resident of Noida, Prem Singh (33), a resident of Faridabad and Mohd. Faisal (37), a resident of Delhi. Delhi: National-Level Wrestler Wanted in Rape, Kidnapping and POCSO Act Case Arrested, Say Police.

According to Sagar Singh Kalsi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (north), a complaint was received at Cyber police station through National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) in which the victim stated that in July 2020 due to Corona pandemic, he was going through some financial crisis and applied for loan, after which he started receiving calls from several unknown mobile numbers and the callers impersonating as officers of HDB Finance Company.

"He was offered a loan as per his financial requirement but with the condition that he had to purchase an insurance policy for sanctioning fictitious loans against insured policy. After issuance of insurance policy, the complainant was induced to transfer money on the pretext of various charges for sanctioning loan amount and thus the complainant was duped of Rs 14 lakh. No loan was disbursed to the complainant," said the official.

During investigation of the case, two-pronged strategy was adopted by the police. A team was deployed to trace the money trail through various accounts and wallets while another team was tasked to conduct a technical investigation through available mobile numbers.

"The efforts of both the teams led to the location of accused persons somewhere in Ghaziabad, Faridabad and in North-East Delhi. Further technical investigation coupled with on ground local enquiry successfully zeroed in on the accused persons," said the official.

Simultaneous raids were conducted in Delhi-NCR and on December 26, Mohit was arrested from his hideout and one i-20 Car, one laptop, five mobile phones, various passbooks, cheque-books and Debit/Credit cards were recovered from him. Delhi Metro Update for New Year’s Eve: No Exit From Rajiv Chowk Metro Station Post 9 PM on December 31, Says DMRC.

"He further led the team to his associate Prem Singh, who was nabbed from Faridabad. On sustained interrogation, both the accused disclosed that they were earlier associated with prime accused Faisal, residing in Seelampur," said the official.

On December 27, the prime accused, Faisal was nabbed while he was coming out from his office located at Sec-59 in Noida (UP).

"The interrogation of Faisal revealed that he along with accused Mohit had been working at an established call centre- Hexar Insurance Private Ltd, Sector 59, Noida (UP) which is a call centre for offering insurance policies of various big insurance companies including Max, Birla Sunlife etc," said the official.

"On analysis of mobile phones of accused persons, it was revealed that tele-callers were also making calls through keypad mobile phones besides fixed calling lines to make fraud calls and trap the victims. Subsequently, the police team reached the call centre and seized 170 mobile phones from the lockers and other hidden places. Some registers and other incriminating documents suspected to have records of victims were also recovered," said the official.

"The data of recovered phones are being analysed and floor managers and the owner of the call centre are being investigated," the official added.