Gang of Cheats Involved in International Extortion/Cheating Busted

Economic Offence Wing of Delhi Police has busted a gang of cheaters involved in international Extortion/Cheating. Three persons have been arrested including an agent/franchisee of Western Union money transfer The gang used a computer software to display the official phone number of Immigration department/Home department of Government of United Kingdom on the victim’s mobile to extort/cheat money from innocent NRIs who were staying or residing in UK as immigrants. A call centre having 13 computer systems used for VoIP calling to the target victims, laptop, mobile phones, Internet dongles and several incriminating documents showing with-drawl of extorted/cheated money through Western Union money transfer recovered.

ACCUSED ARRESTED:

1.   Pawan  Kumar (Age 24yrs)  S/o Prabhu Nandan R/o RZE/197, Nihal Vihar, New Delhi.

2.   Gaurav Pingolia (Age 31 yrs) S/o Late Sh.Daulat Ram

                R/o H.No.7/3529, Raigarpura, Karol Bagh, New Delhi.

3.    Aman Chhabra (Age 24 years) S/o Sh. Mahesh Kumar

      R/o H.No.16/447, I-Block, Military road, Karol Bagh, New

      Delhi.                        

One Amritabh Roy from United Kingdom informed Cyber Cell of EOW through an e-mail that his wife Sudeshna Dasgupta had received a call on 27.08.15 on her mobile phone from a number supposedly from the United Kingdom and the callers posed as officials of United Kingdom Border Agency. They intimidated her stating that she had not fulfilled the immigration formalities in India while leaving for UK which was a criminal offence. To avoid prosecution she must pay a fine of 1477 pounds. They also asked her to isolate herself from any other mobile, telephone, internet and even the people around her. They kept her busy on the phone for almost 4 hours, till she had actually completed the money transfer. In the end they asked her to follow “protocol” and not discuss the matter with anybody. They called back again and demanded another 1300 pounds for some “bail bond”. According to the complainant, there were 3-4 members in the team, who were faking English (British) accent and they spoke from a room without any outside noise for example vehicles etc. The money was collected from Western Union branch/franchise in Delhi on 27.08.15 at 9.45 pm, 9.51 PM and 9.56 PM. On 28.08.2015 at 4.13 PM another email was received informing that the fraudsters are desperate to get another 1300 pounds from them on the pretext of furnishing ‘bail bond’. A case FIR No.114/15 dated 29.08.15 U/s 420 IPC was registered at PS EOW. A team comprising Inspr. Anil Kumar, SI Balihar Singh was constituted to develop the input further.

          On basis of initial investigation a close watch was kept at a particular branch of Western Union money transfer in Tilak Nagar. The franchise operator of the branch Pawan Kumar was interrogated who admitted that three payments mentioned in the FIR were paid from his branch. Initially he tried to mislead the police party however, on sustain interrogation he confessed that he is involved in the racket and MTCN numbers of these payments were received by him from the persons who are running their illegal call centres and on their directions the payments are withdrawn by him through fake ID proofs. On the basis of Pawan’s disclosure and subsequent interrogation of one suspected Rohit Dogra, another accused Aman Chhabra was also arrested from his residence at Anand Parbat on the same night who admitted that illegal call centre for the purpose of cheating and fraud is being run by him and his associates in cheating Gaurav Pingolia, Aman Chabra & Ors. Gaurav Pingolia was also arrested from his residence at Raigarpura, Karol Bagh, New Delhi on the same night.

During sustained interrogation and investigation, it has been revealed that a specific software application had been installed in the computer sets which were used for spoofing and made fake VoIP calls to the victims. The information of the target/victims was obtained from websitenaukri.com and other sources available on the internet. Then they scrutinized persons who have moved from India to United Kingdom. After that they make spoofed calls using the VoIP call application which displayed the number of UK Border Agency office on the phone screen of the victim and threatened the victim as alleged in the complaint. The arrested accused persons also admitted that for calling purpose they use IP Server which belongs to Pacific Communication, UK. The victim was apprehensive to such an extent that he or she agreed to transfer money through Western Union or Money Gram to fulfil their illegal demand to avoid his or her arrest, deportation or detention. After transfer of money the victims communicated the MTCN numbers to the caller which were further conveyed to the agent of Money Transfer Company for with-drawl. The money was withdrawn by these agents and forged entries were made in the record by attaching forged documents to fulfil the guidelines of RBI.

Pawan Kumar was born in the year of 1991 and has studied up to 10th class.  He is married and previously he was working in a cloth shop. In the year of 2012, he got employment in a travel agency and came in contact with some persons involved in the racket. As such he started his own business of travel agency in a rented premise at Choukhandi, Delhi. He also obtained a license of Western Union money transfer in the month of April, 2015. He has been arrested for the first time.

         

Aman Chhabra was born in the year of 1991. He is unmarried. He has studied up to B.Com from Delhi University. He came in contact with his friend Gaurav who had vast experience working with call centres. He gave the idea of opening a call centre and extort/cheat money. He has also been arrested for the first time.

 Gaurav Pingolia was born in the year of 1984. He is a graduate from Delhi University. He is married. He has worked in call centre Gurgaon from 2008 to 2014. In the month of February, 2015 he along with his friends namely Aman started a consultancy company in the name and style as Inter Globe Solutions in a rented office at E-136, main road Shastri Nagar, Delhi. They purchased 13 computer sets for their firm. In the same office, they started their illegal activities. He has also been arrested for the first time. 

RECOVERIES

1.           A complete call centers having computer sets

2.           5 mobile phones

3.           1 laptop

4.           Incriminating  documents