Kolkata: On April 20, at about 12.45 a.m., source information came in that a fraudulent Call Centre was being run from an address at Nabapally, under Haridevpur Police Station. Apparently, the modus operandi was to use Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) to make calls to various parts of the world, especially to citizens of the United Kingdom (UK), by employees of the so called ‘Action Fraud Squad Department’, promising support for computer-related problems, in return for a fee, paid online.
Soon after the information was received, OC Inspector Mr. Prasanta Majumder and Additional OC Inspector Mr. Rajesh Minj, along with a team from Haridevpur Police Station raided the address and found a call centre being operated by Jay Robinson Minz and Yajur Dwivedi, along with several computers in functional condition. On being questioned, the two revealed that during the calls made using VOIP, the fraudsters would assure their ‘customers’ that they would help them detect the fraud they were being subjected to. The fraudsters also told victims in the UK that their computers had been hacked, and the Action Fraud Squad Department had apparently received an automatic report from the affected computer through the Microsoft operating system and other software.
Moreover, using remote access software such as Teamviewer, Anydesk, and Supremo, the fraudsters took control of the target computers to transacte and misappropriate money. They also collected details such as card numbers, CVV numbers and PINs of credit/debit cards using the aforesaid software to make fraudulent transactions.
Needless to add, the two men could not give satisfactory explanations for their alleged activities, and failed to produce any documents/certificates issued by a competent authority. After nearly an hour of questioning, they were arrested and four hard drives, one laptop, two mobile phones, three SIM cards, and various documents including a seemingly forged letterhead of ‘City of London Police’ were seized from their possession.
A case has been registered and Inspector Mr. Minj had been entrusted with the investigation. Both the accused were produced before the court of Ld ACJM Alipore, with a remand prayer for police custody until April 30.
Our, Reporter in Chief
R. Manoj Kumar Sharma
Siliguri City, West Bengal
