The Delhi Police Sunday said it has busted a fake international call centre in West Delhi’s Naraina and arrested 21 people for allegedly cheating hundreds of UK citizens by posing as income tax officers. Each victim was cheated of 400-500 pounds in the name of tax fraud, said police.
The accused posed as officials from Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs, the UK government’s tax collection department, and called people claiming there were tax discrepancies found during the audit.
DCP (West) Urvija Goel said her team raided the call centre on Thursday and arrested the 21 employees. However, the owner of the centre hasn’t been caught and is on the run.
“The 21 accused, including a floor manager and two supervisors, were caught at the centre. We found they were using VOIP calls to connect to victims. They were using expensive software like Eyebeam, VICI Dial, and Xlite for the offence. They started this in February this year and collected data of lakhs of UK taxpayers.”
Police said the owner has associates or links in the UK who is helping collect data of UK citizens and payment wallets.
“We have not been able to calculate the total cheated amount because they used foreign payment wallets like Monzo and Tide. They also didn’t maintain records of the calls. Our team is scanning through their devices and bank accounts. During questioning, we found that they cheated each victim of 400-500 pounds each,” said a police officer.
Police said they received a tip about a call centre operating amid the pandemic and raided the place on Thursday. They then found it was an illegal set up started in February to dupe UK citizens. The employees were asked to come despite the curfew.
A case under sections of cheating, the Indian Telegraph Act, the Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, and the Information Technology Act has been registered. “We have recovered mobile phones, 34 personal computers and found incriminating evidence of foreign payment gateways and fraud bank accounts,” said the DCP.
