Delhi Police Bust Three Fake International Call Centres, 23 Held

Delhi Police have dismantled three alleged illegal international call centres operating out of residential premises in west Delhi, arresting 23 people in connection with a technical-support scam network that targeted citizens of the United States, Canada and European countries.

The coordinated raids were carried out on September 17 at locations in Meenakshi Garden, Ajay Enclave and Kirti Nagar, following specific intelligence and technical inputs, according to the police.

Those arrested include alleged owners and organisers Saurabh Sharma (36), Saranjeet Singh alias Jerry (31) and Taranjeet Singh alias Jazz (34), along with managers, telecallers and a person allegedly serving as a banker. Gurvinder Singh alias Harry (34) has been identified as the alleged main head of the operation, while Manmohan alias Maddy (32) allegedly worked as the banker and Sonit Kapoor alias James (31) as a manager.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Hareshwar V Swami said the accused allegedly posed as Apple/iOS and Microsoft technical-support or customer-care personnel and used internet-based calling applications to contact foreign nationals.

Investigators said the premises had been converted into workstations fitted with laptops, mobile phones, routers and headphones. The raids yielded two high-end cars, 27 laptops, 28 mobile phones, 11 routers, 36 headphones, 25 adapters and Rs 79,200 in cash.

According to the investigation, the accused used social-engineering techniques against victims overseas. Fake pop-ups and messages claiming unauthorised purchases, subscription renewals or security issues were allegedly used to push victims into contacting toll-free numbers run by the call centres. Once contact was established, telecallers allegedly passed victims on to people posing as senior officials or bankers, who demanded payments of between USD 149 and USD 499 to supposedly resolve the issue.

Victims were allegedly induced to pay through Apple gift cards or Zelle, with the payment details then circulated among members of the network for collection and conversion of the fraudulent proceeds, the DCP said.

Police said applications such as Google Voice, X-Lite, EyeBeam and MicroSIP were used for internet-based international calls, while UltraViewer was allegedly used to gain remote access to victims' computers. The network allegedly relied on VoIP-based calling and other technical methods to conceal the location and identity of operators and to bypass lawful international calling gateways.

A preliminary examination of the seized digital devices revealed foreign call histories, lists of overseas telephone numbers, victim-related information, payment screenshots and conversations, police said. The devices also held business accounts on online messaging applications and multiple groups allegedly used for operational coordination, sharing toll-free number information and handling fraudulent proceeds.

Among the other arrested persons were Rahul Verma (24), Raju (23), Ratan Kumar (25), Nilesh Mishra (32), Vikash Giri (35), Nitin Das alias Karan Rai alias Nathan (24), Saurab Singh alias Jason (25), Sagar Singh alias Shivi Singh alias Alex (23), Madhav Kathuria (20), Gursimran Singh (27), Harshit Handa (31), Shivam Sharma (26), Ravi Yadav (39) and Ayush Bhargav (31).

Police said the digital evidence is being analysed to establish the full hierarchy of the alleged network, identify other associates and determine the individual roles of those arrested. Further investigation is underway.