Kolkata Police bust fake call centre; 10 arrested for duping foreigners

On Tuesday, a fake call center was busted in the Bidhannagar area of North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal. The call center used to dupe people from abroad, mainly from Switzerland, Norway, Ireland, and Germany by impersonating employees of brand companies like Microsoft. The police arrested 10 people in connection with this operation.

During the raid, 19 computers, 3 hard disks, 10 smartphones, and a register were seized from the accused. They will be produced in Barasat court today and appeal for police custody.

The arrested accused have been identified as Soumyajit Betal (29 years), son of Sandeep Betal of 19 Shibu Chakraborty Lane, Police Station-Bali, Howrah, Aditya Sharma (21 years), son of Dinesh Kumar Sharma, Kali Park, Bablatla, Thana-Narayanpur, Kolkata, Arpit Roy (25 years), Alok Roy son of A1/6, Purvasha Housing, 160 Maniktala Main Road, PS Maniktala, Kolkata and Nikhil Chauhan (24 years), Paban Kumar Chauhan son of Gobind Nibas, Mathpada, ICC-Cream Near the factory, police station - Newtown, Kolkata.

The accused were booked under section 419/420/467/468/469/471/120B IPC under Bidhannagar cybercrime police station case number 51/23. The police have also seized several important documents from them.

According to the Bidhannagar Cyber Station officials, the call center operated from Rajarhat and had been active since February 2023. The accused used to call people from abroad and showed them errors, warning signals, and internet speed problems in their devices. They would then access the victim's devices through remote access applications and force them to pay through various payment modes.

This is not the first time a fake call center has been busted in West Bengal. In November 2021, a fake call center was busted in Kolkata's Salt Lake City area, where the accused used to dupe people by posing as employees of American tech giant Microsoft. The police had arrested 12 people in that operation.