NOIDA: Armed with lakhs of American social security numbers that had apparently leaked on the dark web, a sophisticated cyber fraud operation running from a building in Sector 6 made hundreds of calls every day to US citizens.
Accent-trained to sound like Americans themselves, this group of mostly youngsters but fluent in handling BPO operations, mimicked personnel from the US Social Security Administration to scare their targets about the leak of personal data.
Many didn’t bite the bait, but quite a few did.
On Wednesday evening, police raided the premises after a tip-off, making 84 arrests in one of the largest cyber con operations to be busted in NCR. While the two masterminds, Harshit Kumar and Yogesh Pandit alias Anna, are absconding, police said the call centre had contacted 4 lakh US citizens and succeeded in cheating more than 600.
“The duo started the call centre four months ago. The 84 employees, including 38 women, were aware of the fraud but had neither informed the cops nor quit the job because of the high incentives they drew,” DCP Harish Chander said. The operation brought in revenues of Rs 40 lakh per day.
Chander said the call centre was using software like VICIdial and eyeBeam. They sent voice messages that warned recipients about the imminent suspension of their social security number (SSN) because of “suspicious activity” and asked them to call back on a specified number.
SSN is a nine-digit unique number assigned to US citizens to track their income and determine benefits.
“Once a person called back, the call centre employees would pretend to open their case files and would ask for details like name and zip code. They would then tell the victim about a suspension order issued against their SSN. Next, the victims were asked to share the last four digits of their SSN. Once they shared the number, the cons would inform them about suspicious activities, like drug trafficking, money laundering and vehicle-related fraud, linked to their SNN,” the DCP said.
They scared the victims who readily agreed to lodge a case of identification theft.
“The accused would then ask the victim to share his/her bank details and say that the call was being transferred to the US Marshals Service. After the call was transferred, another person linked to the fraud introduced himself or herself as an officer from the US Marshals and told the victim to save their money in the form of cryptocurrency or gift cards as their bank account would be seized. Most offered to convert their money into crypto and the accused used the opportunity to share a code with them. This code, when used by the victim, transferred all their money to the accused’s account. In case a victim purchased gift cards, the accused took the secret number on the card and siphoned off the money,” the DCP said.
The call centre staff were booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) and sections of the IT Act, cops said.
Police have seized 150 computers, besides Rs 20 lakh in cash, a Creta and some documents. Forensic and cyber teams are currently checking the computers.
Watch How Noida call centre scammers used dark web data to dupe lakhs of Americans in two-tier fraud
Accent-trained to sound like Americans themselves, this group of mostly youngsters but fluent in handling BPO operations, mimicked personnel from the US Social Security Administration to scare their targets about the leak of personal data.
Many didn’t bite the bait, but quite a few did.
On Wednesday evening, police raided the premises after a tip-off, making 84 arrests in one of the largest cyber con operations to be busted in NCR. While the two masterminds, Harshit Kumar and Yogesh Pandit alias Anna, are absconding, police said the call centre had contacted 4 lakh US citizens and succeeded in cheating more than 600.
“The duo started the call centre four months ago. The 84 employees, including 38 women, were aware of the fraud but had neither informed the cops nor quit the job because of the high incentives they drew,” DCP Harish Chander said. The operation brought in revenues of Rs 40 lakh per day.
Chander said the call centre was using software like VICIdial and eyeBeam. They sent voice messages that warned recipients about the imminent suspension of their social security number (SSN) because of “suspicious activity” and asked them to call back on a specified number.
SSN is a nine-digit unique number assigned to US citizens to track their income and determine benefits.
“Once a person called back, the call centre employees would pretend to open their case files and would ask for details like name and zip code. They would then tell the victim about a suspension order issued against their SSN. Next, the victims were asked to share the last four digits of their SSN. Once they shared the number, the cons would inform them about suspicious activities, like drug trafficking, money laundering and vehicle-related fraud, linked to their SNN,” the DCP said.
They scared the victims who readily agreed to lodge a case of identification theft.
“The accused would then ask the victim to share his/her bank details and say that the call was being transferred to the US Marshals Service. After the call was transferred, another person linked to the fraud introduced himself or herself as an officer from the US Marshals and told the victim to save their money in the form of cryptocurrency or gift cards as their bank account would be seized. Most offered to convert their money into crypto and the accused used the opportunity to share a code with them. This code, when used by the victim, transferred all their money to the accused’s account. In case a victim purchased gift cards, the accused took the secret number on the card and siphoned off the money,” the DCP said.
The call centre staff were booked under IPC sections 420 (cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) and sections of the IT Act, cops said.
Police have seized 150 computers, besides Rs 20 lakh in cash, a Creta and some documents. Forensic and cyber teams are currently checking the computers.
Watch How Noida call centre scammers used dark web data to dupe lakhs of Americans in two-tier fraud