Noida: Fake call centre duping people with bogus insurance offers busted, 13 held

Noida (UP), Jan 6 (PTI) A fake call centre allegedly cheating people by offering bogus insurance policies and false promises of bonuses in exchange for payments was busted in Noida on Tuesday, leading to the arrest of 13 persons, police said.

The modus operandi of the racket allegedly involved callers posing as insurance agents contacting policyholders and potential customers and luring them into transferring money into bank accounts controlled by the accused, an official said.

A joint team of the Cyber Crime Police Station, Gautam Buddh Nagar, and Sector 63 police carried out the operation and busted the fake call centre operating from H-198 in Sector 63, police said.

During the raid, police recovered two laptops, a modem, a PNT (positioning, navigation, and timing) telecaller device, 31 mobile phones, 721 data sheets and two diaries, they added.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crime) Shavvya Goyal said during interrogation, the accused revealed they would contact people claiming to represent insurance companies and persuade them to renew lapsed policies, buy new ones, or claim promised bonuses.

"Although they claimed to work for only two insurance companies, the accused procured data of other companies' policyholders from the market and contacted them using multiple fake phone numbers and bank accounts," Goyal said, adding that the illegal proceeds were later shared among the gang members.

The arrested persons have been identified as Chhatrapal Sharma, Satyam, Sameer, Raj Salauddin, Ishwar Karmali, Suhail, Vivek Kumar, Sumit Kumar, Mohd Asif, Suhail, Rajiv Kumar, Mithilesh and Hariom.

An FIR has been registered under sections 318 (cheating), 319 (cheating by personation), 336 (forgery), 340 (forgery by documents) and 61 (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and under provisions of the Information Technology Act at Sector 63 police station.

Police said Chhatrapal Sharma (32), a resident of Greater Noida West and CEO of Grow UP Management Solution OPC Pvt Ltd, has a criminal history, with multiple cases registered against him. PTI COR KIS ARB ARB