The owner and the 47 young operators were arrested. They had been trained to communicate with unsuspecting bank customers in Australia.
A bogus call center in India that defrauded Australian bank customers was busted last month after it was betrayed by too many early morning breakfast orders, Mumbai police said Monday.
The call center housed several dozen operators who were not allowed to leave its premises, located along Rajodi beach outside India’s financial capital, Bombay, for fear of being spot.
But the police were informed of these frequent orders of many breakfasts placed with a nearby restaurant, from 4 am.
“The resort is full of tourists on the weekends but it’s almost deserted the rest of the time,” said police officer Suhas Bavche.
“50-60 tea and breakfast orders placed so early for several days aroused our suspicions and we began to secretly monitor the place,” he added.
Charged with identity theft, fraud and fraud
On the night of April 11, the police finally launched a search of the one-story building, equipped with 60 workstations. The owner and 47 operators were arrested. They have been charged with impersonation, fraud and fraud under India’s Information Technology Act.
The authorities have begun a thorough examination of the computers. The investigation revealed that the young operators had been trained to communicate with unsuspecting bank customers in Australia.
They were extracting personal data and sensitive security information, including passwords, which they passed on to their managers via email, Suhas Bavche said.
“It is surely the tip of the iceberg. We are investigating the international connections of this racket,” added the policeman.
According to him, such fake call centers operate all over the country and are regularly dismantled before being reconstituted.
