The police recovered 10 mobile phones, a laptop, seven ATM cards, SIM cards, passbooks, cheque books and documents from the premises of the call center in Delhi’s Dwarka area.
With the arrest of four accused – Amir Zeesham, Rahul Singh Rajawat, Rekha and Shivam Sharma, the Delhi Police busted a fake call center and solved a cheating case. The police have recovered 10 mobile phones, a laptop, seven ATM cards, SIM cards, passbooks, cheque books and documents from the premises of the call center in Delhi’s Dwarka area.
On January 3, the police received a complaint from Manish Gupta (21), who alleged that while searching for a job, he applied for one on a web portal. After a few days, he received a call and was offered the job as an accountant at HDFC Bank.
He was asked to pay Rs 1,500 as a registration fee, which he transferred. After an online test and a telephonic interview, he received an offer letter through email.
Gupta was asked to transfer money on different pretexts and was told that the money would be refunded after a year into the job. He paid Rs 6,580 for laptop charges, Rs 10,500 for opening a salary account, Rs 15,500 for health insurance, Rs 16,500 for dresses and shoes and Rs 18,500 for domain ID and other expenses.
He transferred the amount to the bank accounts of the accused. He then received a call to transfer Rs 22,500 to dispatch a parcel, when he suspected he had been duped of Rs 69,080.
he police analysed the money trail, gathered details of the beneficiary’s bank accounts and mounted technical surveillance. Further, a team was deployed to gather local intelligence. With this, the police raided the call centre, where three people, including a woman, were found to be working.
The accused – Amir Zeesham and Rahul Rajawat – are partners in the call center with a 50 per cent profit share. They took a place on rent for Rs 15,000 and began operations six months ago. They hired Rekha, another accused, as a tele-caller on the monthly salary of Rs 20,000. She also arranged bank accounts and SIM cards for commission.
Another accused, Shivam Sharma, provided his bank account for the money to be deposited and allegedly charged Rs 10,000 as commission for each transaction to his bank account.
During their sustained interrogation, the accused confessed to their involvement in the case. Amir Zeesham, the mastermind, has an engineering degree. He got a job after college, where he learnt the techniques of hiring new recruits for various profiles. He was earning around Rs 60,000.
He wanted to earn more money and left his job in 2021. He collaborated with Rahul Rajawat, who he met through a common friend, to start the call center.
MODUS OPERANDI
According to the accused, over 250 people were duped with job offers by them in the past year. The accused would collect data through the various job sites and Rekha would call the potential victims.
This was followed by verification of documents, an online test and a telephonic interview, after which the victims would be offered jobs as per their qualifications.
Once they accepted the offer, the victims would be asked to pay for verification, insurance, opening an account, uniforms, accessories and other such things. The accused would switch off their phone once the transfers are done and change the SIM cards. According to them, they used to earn around Rs 3 lakh a month this way.
Source: Indiatoday