Illegal call centers targeting US citizens exposed, highlighting property owners’ role in enabling cybercrime | Representational Image
Mumbai: With many Indian illegal call centres being involved in orchestrating scams and duping United States citizens, having busted, the larger question that arises is that why the law enforcement agencies do not take action against those who lease their properties to such illegal operators without due diligence.
Mark Rober, a YouTuber, had claimed that one scam call center in India makes 65000 USD a day and some media reports stated that illegal call centres operating in Kolkata make Rs 3000 crore a day.
FBI data in 2022 had stated that US citizens had lost over $10 billion in romance-related frauds and ‘tech support’ pop-ups, originating largely from illegal call centres and phishing gangs in India.
In September this year, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had taken action to successfully dismantle a sophisticated virtual asset and bullion supported cyber crime network that has been targeting victims in foreign countries since 2022. This operation was executed in close coordination with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (USA).
It was alleged that accused individuals, between June and August 2022, conspired to target a U.S. citizen by gaining unauthorized remote access to the victim’s computer and bank account. It was also alleged that under the pretext of offering tech support services, they falsely informed the US based victim that her bank account had been compromised. Claiming that the funds were at risk, they allegedly manipulated the victim into transferring USD 453,953 to cryptocurrency wallets controlled by them.
Following the registration of the case, the CBI swiftly conducted extensive searches at multiple locations associated/ linked to the accused, yielding substantial incriminating evidence.
Searches conducted by CBI at seven locations across Mumbai and Kolkata revealed that this transnational cyber-enabled financial crimes network was channeling proceeds of crime through virtual assets and bullion.
In 2022, the CBI had carried out a massive crackdown at multiple locations against criminals involved in Cyber Enabled Financial Crimes. According to the CBI, the operation was launched after inputs were received from international law enforcement agencies such as Interpol, America’s FBI, Royal Canadian Mountain Police and Australian Federal Police, informing about suspects operating from Indian soil and allegedly involved in various cyber crimes. The CBI probe had revealed that two bogus call centres in Pune and Ahmedabad were targeting gullible American citizens.
There is a need for ample employment opportunities so that the educated youth do not enter such illegal industries and ruin their career, and also the law enforcement agencies on their part should take measures so that those who lease their properties to such illegal call centre operators are also made accountable.
