The two call centres, which were detected during the nationwide crackdown led by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the cyber-enabled financial crime syndicates on Tuesday, had allegedly been operating since 2014-15.
Set up in Pune and Ahmedabad, the centres had about 150 people who would make clandestine calls to the prospective targets in the United States and lure them into making payments on various pretexts. The masked calls would be made via the Voice over Internet Protocol technology to evade detection. The U.S.’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had shared the initial information about the scam with the CBI a few months ago.
The agency’s Cyber Crime Investigation Division (CCID) developed the inputs received from the Interpol, the FBI and the enforcement agencies in Canada and Australia. During the massive exercise, the investigators kept tabs on the suspects’ digital footprints. The inter-agency coordination work was done by the CBI’s recently set up International Operations division. It is learnt that the head of Interpol’s cyber crime unit also visited India to facilitate smooth sharing of actionable intelligence.
