Noida, April 9 (IANS) Police in UP’s Gautam Buddha Nagar have achieved a major success in its crackdown on cybercrime with the Cyber Crime Police Station team on Thursday busting a fake call centre operating in Sector-16, Noida, and arresting 16 accused, officials said.

The gang used to trap foreign nationals through paid online advertisements and defraud them by instilling fear of hacking and data theft.

According to the police, the action was carried out based on local intelligence and technical inputs. Items recovered from the accused include 4 laptops, 15 desktops, 15 monitors, 16 mobile phones, 16 microphone-headsets, 2 routers, and a modem.

Police said the gang had been carrying out organised cyber fraud for a long time. During interrogation, it was revealed that the accused ran paid advertisements on social media and other platforms, which displayed toll-free numbers. When foreign citizens called these numbers, the calls were routed to calling software installed on the gang’s systems.

The accused would then pose as technical support agents and convince victims that their computers had been hacked. Using screen-sharing applications, they gained access to the victims’ systems and extracted banking details. To create panic, they would black out the computer screens, making victims more likely to comply.

The gang then defrauded victims of amounts ranging from $100 to $500 or more, depending on the balance in their accounts. Investigation further revealed that the money obtained through fraud was converted into cryptocurrency and routed via hawala channels before being distributed among the accused.

Analysis of the seized mobile phones and laptops has revealed evidence of transactions worth crores of rupees. A case has been registered at the Cyber Crime Police Station under relevant sections of the BNS and the IT Act. Police are now working to identify other members of the network and potential victims.

The police have urged citizens not to trust unknown calls or advertisements. If someone claims to be a technical support agent and tries to create panic, people should remain alert. They should not allow screen sharing to unknown individuals or share their banking details.

In case of cyber fraud, citizens should immediately contact the helpline number 1930 or lodge a complaint on the National Cyber Crime Portal.

–IANS

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