Fake call centre busted, 19 arrested

Kolkata: The Anti Rowdy Squad (ARS) of Kolkata Police busted a fake call centre and arrested 19 persons from the Ballygunge area on Monday night for allegedly duping US citizens on the pretext of providing antivirus software service.

According to sources, police came to know about the call centre, being operated from a flat on Mullen Road in Ballygunge area, while probing a case of financial cheating.

On Monday night, a team of ARS conducted a raid at the flat and found 19 people working at the call centre.

During the investigation, police learnt that the people working at the call centre used to call US citizens using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and introduced themselves as employees of antivirus protection service providers.

The fraudsters used to ask the targets to update the antivirus software installed on their devices, otherwise, it would stop working. After convincing the targets to avail of their service, they used to ask targets to install Team Viewer, a remote access software, and gain access to the targets’ computer devices. After getting access to the system, they used to put some malware in the device and steal data from it. Later, the accused persons used to compel their targets to buy gift cards which they used to redeem later. During the raid, several mobile phones, laptops, routers, screenshots, etc were seized and all 19 individuals, working there, were apprehended. However, the mastermind of the fake call centre is yet to be arrested. A case has been registered at the Ballygunge police station.