1 lakh people duped by fake call centres busted in Mohali in May: Police to HC

Punjab Police inform high court that 336 probable victims have been identified in the US, with one victim alone being duped of ₹2.36 crore

At least one lakh people, within the country and outside, fell victim to the two fake call centres busted by Punjab Police in Mohali in May this year, states a report submitted in the Punjab and Haryana high court.

The FIR into running of two fake call centres in Phase 8-B of Mohali was registered on May 15 and upon raids, a total of 155 employees, who had been scamming unsuspecting US citizens through fraudulent phone calls, were arrested. (Shutterstock)

The status report on the probe filed before the court reveals that 336 targets/probable victims have been identified in United States of America (USA) alone.

The FIR into running of two fake call centres in Phase 8-B of Mohali was registered on May 15 and upon raids, a total of 155 employees, who had been scamming unsuspecting US citizens through fraudulent phone calls, were arrested.

Pretending to be Amazon representatives, the employees threatened customers that a parcel ordered by them had illegal items and police will be informed. On the pretext of cancelling the order, they would make the victims pay via a cash app or Amazon gift card, etc, the police claimed.

Two more similar illegal call centres were busted by police in June in the same Phase-8 area and another such racket was busted in Zirakpur in August.

The information has been shared by police during the hearing of the bail pleas of 15 odd employees of these two call centres before the high court.

As per police, 155 persons have been arrested. Out of these 155 persons, 137 persons were dialler agents, and 18 persons worked as bankers/closers and floor managers. The dialler agents were provided the data of the victims residing abroad on their systems, along with the script, depicting various modi operandi to lure the victims to provide them details of their bank accounts, etc, the report said.

Detailing about financial transactions made by the fraudsters, the police said some documents have been found, as per which transactions of ₹37 crore have been reported between December 2023 to May 2024 through various modes.

‘Punjab police in touch with US enforcement agencies’

In depth analysis of the huge volume of data recovered from 211 laptops, 79 CPUs and 53 mobile devices is being carried out and same is being shared with the USA law enforcement agencies also, the report said, adding that all servers/applications used in the crime were based in USA and efforts were on to retrieve the data.

Two main accused, Kandarp Nalinbhai Jani, alias Bunty Bhai, and Chirag Mahajan are yet to be arrested.

As per police, in August one such US victim came forward and supplied some documents about the scam. She alone was duped of ₹2.36 crore, as per police.

They added that request under Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) had also been initiated with USA authorities to provide information regarding the victims.