The Delhi Police has busted an illegal call centre in Nangloi area and arrested eight people, including six women, for allegedly duping people on the pretext of offering them work-from-home job opportunities, officials said on Thursday. The accused managed to dupe four-five people every day, they said. Acting on a tip-off on Tuesday, police conducted a raid at the call centre, which was being run by two brothers — Ajim Ali (21) and Afzal Mirza (25) — with the help of six women telecallers, police said.

Ali and Mirza started the call centre in January 2020 but it was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic-induced lockdown. Later, they reopened it, a senior police officer said. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Parminder Singh said the call centre employees would call on random numbers and offer work from home and online job opportunities with a remuneration of up to Rs 2,000 per day. If the caller accepted the offer, they would ask for money for verification and final placement. Once the money was transferred to their account, there would be no further contact.

The verification amount ranged between Rs 1,000 and Rs 3,000 per person to avoid chances of victims approaching police, he said.
A case was registered under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and all the accused were arrested, the police said.
Eight mobile phones, one laptop, one computer, 20 SIM cards and registers were seized during the raid, they said.

Call centre busted for duping customers over discounted cell phones

In another case, a 40-year-old man and 11 employees working at his call centre in outer Delhi were arrested for allegedly duping people on the pretext of offering them expensive mobile phones at heavily-discounted rates, police said on Thursday. The employees at the call centre in Mangolpuri area randomly called up people if they were interested in purchasing smartphones worth about Rs 20,000 at a meagre amount of Rs 4,000, an officer said.

If anyone agrees and places the order, a plastic phone would be sent by packing as a new phone. The numbers given to the customers to complain subsequently were all fake. At least two-three customers were fooled on an average on a daily basis, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Parminder Singh said. Krishan had started his business of supplying mobile phone online last year. After he suffered losses, he started the illegal telemarketing call centre to dupe customers on the pretext of providing them expensive mobile phones at lower prices, according to police.

A raid was conducted on Tuesday, and Krishan and 11 employees, including eight women, were arrested, police said. A case was registered under several sections, including 420 (cheating), of the Indian Penal Code and all of them were arrested. Twelve mobile phones, SIM cards, computer and record register from the call centre have been recovered, police said.