India: Fake call centre busted in Ambala, 9 booked

Indian Call Centre

Ambala, Jun 9 (PTI) Haryana Police on Wednesday raided an alleged fake call centre being run in a marriage palace building on Ambala-Kaithal Highway near Ambala city and booked nine people in this connection, police said.

Rahul from Gurugram, Kamal (Panchkula), Chintan (Ahmedabad) and six others were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act, they said.

The accused hired the premise around a year back and since it is far away from urban locality, nobody could imagine that a fake call centre is being run there, police said.

According to an FIR registered in Ambala Sadar police station, when the police raided the call centre, around 86 males and 34 females were found working there.

Most of the female workers were busy having conversations with foreigners to lure them. Some people were using air phones, mobile phones and laptops, it said.

The police have seized some mobile phones and laptops from their possession.

Police said most of the employees were speaking in English and that they were allegedly duping foreigners.

The employees posed themselves as representatives of Amazon company and the Law Enforcement Department, police said.

The call centre was also duping US nationals by using their social security numbers. On an average, around 3,000 to 5,000 people were contacted by this call centre daily, they said.

Police said that when asked, the call centre organizer could not produce any valid license from the Department of Telecommunications or any other agreement related to their work.