Cyber Police Arrest 23 For Running Fake Call Centres In Kashmir

Srinagar: Kashmir which was struggling to get steady telecom and internet service for long is now becoming a hub of fake call centres in India. A recent breakthrough has raised the worries for law enforcement agencies as such fake call centres which were limited to big cities have mushroomed to other parts of India.

While most of the things are shut in Kashmir, several fake call centres somehow managed to function from the valley. According to police, the accused, 23 of them, used to dupe people by posing as executives of multinational companies on phone. The gang was busted when cyber police station, Kashmir Zone received a complaint in this regard.

According to an officer, Cyber Police Station, Kashmir Zone, Srinagar constituted several teams in collaboration with the district police and carried out multiple raids in Rangreth, Karfali Mohalla-Habbakadal and Natipora.

“During these raids, 23 accused persons involved in the running of these fake call centres were arrested,” he said.

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During the investigation, it was established that some fake call centre employees were posing as executives of multinational companies and duping innocent people in the name of offering technical support and solutions to their software problems, the spokesperson said.

The accused were making cold calls and sending e-mails and pop-ups on the victims’ computer screens. They used to take the remote access to their computers and infect their systems with malware.

Then they would ask for money from the victims in return for help by posing as technical support executives, he added.

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“These fake call centres have been identified as Secure Tech Rangreth Srinagar, YSS Micro Technologies Rangreth and Vertex Technology, Karfalli Mohalla Srinagar,” he said.

According to the spokesperson, fake call centres earn anything between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 20 lakh per day, depending upon the size of their set-up.

These call centres were common in metro cities but expose of call centre running from Kashmir also highlights the widespread network of these scammers.