•COMPLETE GANG EXPOSED WITH THE ARREST OF 5 CYBER CHEATS FROM DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COUNTRY, • CASH, COMPLAINANTS’ MOBILE PHONES AND LAPTOP RECOVERED • VICTIMS FROM THE UNITED STATES APPROACHED DELHI POLICE THROUGH US EMBASSY WITH THEIR COMPLAINTS

Face2News/New Delhi

Intelligence Fusion & Strategic Operations (IFSO) reported to have busted an entire fraudulent operational setup that aimed to extort money from innocent elderly citizens of the United States of America by playing upon fraud under the guise of hackers’ fear. Perpetrators approached them on the pretext of online technical support and then engaged them in their skillfully scripted trap of fear, lies and false promises which cost the victims their hard earned 625000 USD.

Mr. Jose Antonio Cordero and Mrs. Laniwati Tanudjaja of the United States of America made a complaint to DCP/IFSO/Spl. Cell, Delhi through US Embassy in India wherein they alleged that they had sought online help from a famous tech support website Geek Squad to resolve problems in their laptop on October 21, 2021. On the same day they got a call and the caller introduced himself as John from Geek Squad and he told them that their laptop had been hacked and all their information including financial data had been revealed to the hackers and that all their life time savings might be stolen by hackers if funds are not saved immediately by transferring to some safe accounts. Further, the fraudster John connected the victims to his colleague Austin, introducing him as technical expert and both of them convinced the victims to transfer their savings to different overseas accounts to save it from hackers. Under close online guidance, victim Jose Antonio transferred his and his friend Laniwati’s funds to various overseas accounts given by the fraudsters through wire transfers and gift cards in order to save the same from the so-called hackers.

In order to maintain the trust of the victims, there was one more entry on the scene who was introduced as Mr. Christopher, a Senior Level Officer in Geek Squad who gave patient and sympathetic hearing to the grievances of the victims with promise to help them.

After some days, Christopher told the victims that he had initiated the process to return their money and in support of his version, he sent copies/images of some cheques (forged cheques) purported to be issued in favour of the victims as a proof and convinced them that in order to stop any future attack of hackers on their already infected devices, they should buy new laptops, mobile phones and routers in which some special software would be installed to make these devices hack-proof by so-called tech experts from the Geek Squad, who were operating under the assumed identity of John, Austin and Christopher.

The daring criminals got two Macbook Pro laptops and four expensive Samsung mobile phones delivered in Mehrauli, New Delhi under the impression that they enjoy complete impunity against cybercrime committed overseas. After exhausting all the savings and even exhausting limits of the credit cards of the victim Jose Antonio, all the three shared the cheated amount among them to live a lavish life.

INVESTIGATION: A criminal case under the relevant provisions of IPC and IT Act was lodged at PS Special Cell in this regard and investigation of the case was assigned to Inspector Rajeev Malik, who examined the complainants through video conferencing to verify the complaint. Investigation revealed that all the three cyber-cheats were based in different parts of India and had acted in connivance with each other to target the gullible elderly citizens in the United State of America. Their true identities were revealed as Suman Das from Kolkata who was posing as John, a customer care executive with Geek Squad, Subrat Das from Bhubaneswar, Odisha who was pretending to be Austin, technical expert at Geek Squad and Kunal Singh who pretended to be a senior management level officer with Geek Squad. Accordingly, three distinct teams under the supervision of Sh. Jai Prakash, ACP/IFSO and under the guidance of Sh. Prashant Gautam, DCP/IFSO were formed so that all accused are arrested without undue delay and with evidences.

First action was done in Delhi by the team led by Inspr. Rajeev Malik, which arrested the accused Kunal Singh from Mehrauli, Delhi after technical surveillance. The box of one of the Macbook Pro laptops was recovered from his home. Further, at his instance, two Samsung Fold and Samsung Flip mobile phones were recovered from the persons to whom those mobile phones were sold by him. Accused Kunal was taken on seven days PC remand and he divulged specific and relevant information about his accomplices.

The second operation was carried out by a team under the leadership of Inspr. Jitender Malik, which arrested Subrat Das from Distt. Kendrapara, Odisha. Cash of Rs. 7 Lakhs, one Macbook Pro laptop and two Samsung Flip and Samsung Fold mobile phones were recovered at his instance. Similarly, the third team under the leadership of Inspr. Anil Kumar Malik raided the hideout of Suman Das in Kolkata and arrested him in the case.

All the three accused, during their police remand were confronted with each other and they revealed that they get around 40-50 % of total cheated amount as other stakeholders like US bank account providers, blockers (who convert cheated money to cash) and call providers (who arrange these fake calls with gullible customers) take their share apart from other expenses.

It was also revealed that majority of the cheated amount was spent by them on betting and on spending a lavish life style. The accused further divulged that one Gautam from Delhi was their “blocker” who had redeemed all their wire transfers/gift cards etc. through the hawala network. During course of investigation, Gautam was also arrested and he disclosed that he works for one Amit from Rohini, Delhi. Thereafter, Amit was also arrested and his interrogation has revealed that this is a big hawala racket having their nodes in US, China and other countries. It has also been revealed that generally all such fraudulently obtained money/gift cards etc. are redeemed in China on heavily discounted price.

Cryptocurrency is another medium for moving the proceeds of crime across the border and for accumulating the funds. Another revealing angle is that the big chunk of cheated amount is being spent on online betting by the criminals and cash generated through online betting is circulated back in hawala network.

One more important vertex of ecosystem of cheating through call centres is call-providers who work as starting point in planning of such business-of-crime. They run online campaigns of Google ads by showing false Toll-Free-Numbers in their ads which are visible when some services are searched on Google search engine. Further, the perpetrators push pop-ups in windows systems, which prompt the user’s immediate attention. Such pop-ups often contain Toll-Free-Numbers to be contacted for resolving the issues. When such numbers are called by a user, these calls land in the fake call centres being operated by cyber-cheats who have well-planned script handy with them in advance to trap the caller by putting him/her in state of panic by deception, lies and false promises.

KNOW THE ACCUSED: Kunal Singh @ Christopher, aged 31 years, is a school dropout from Delhi whose parents originally belong to UP. His father was a painter, whereas his mother was a stamp vendor with P&T Department. He has been working in various genuine call centres and has good experience to deal with the customers and is fluent in English speaking. Kunal Singh and Subrat are classmates from a Govt. School of South Delhi.

Subrat Das @ Austin, aged 32 years, is also a school dropout who did many odd jobs before working at a call centre in Delhi. His family originally belongs to Odisha, however, his parents presently live in Faridabad, Haryana. Subrat Das started his job as a caller to cheat US citizens in partnership of one of his friends from Arjun Nagar, South Delhi in 2011-12.

Mr.H.G.S. Dhaliwal, IPS, Special Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, said, all the arrested accused persons are running in judicial custody as of now. Further investigation is underway in the matter.

Suman Chandra Das, aged 26 years, is a diploma holder who has been working in fake call centres in Kolkata. During his job at such call centres, he would share the contact numbers and other details of the potential victims to Subrat Das and then both of them would exploit them. Based on specific requirement, they would take the services of other persons also.

Gautam, a resident of Pitam Pura, Delhi, is a B. Com graduate who would do job at an MNC. As of now, he is doing full time job to convert USD to cash.

Amit Singh, a resident of Rohini, Delhi, is an MBA degree holder. He has been in this field for last 8-10 years. He has contacts with big players of hawala network and takes cash from them against the wire transactions/gift cards to pay it to the call centres through his field executives.

RECOVERY:  Rs. 07 Lakhs cash, 6 Laptops including complainant’s Macbook Pro, 11 Mobile Phones including complainant’s 4 expensive phones, 3 Routers, 2 Empty boxes of mobile phones, 2 Empty boxes of Apple MacBook Pro Laptops, 1 SIM Card

Mr.H.G.S. Dhaliwal, IPS, Special Commissioner of Police, Special Cell, said, all the arrested accused persons are running in judicial custody as of now. Further investigation is underway in the matter.