Bengaluru hunt for citizens hit by US-based fraud consultancy

The Bengaluru police have decided to contact the US consulate in Chennai for assistance in finding victims of two fake call centres targeting US citizens. The call centres were busted in Bengaluru earlier this month.
The Whitefield Division of the Bengaluru police raided the premises of two call centres operating under the identities of Ethical Infotech and Ethical Infocomm at two different locations earlier this month following a tip-off. The call centres target mostly senior citizens in the US to steal their funds through fraud.
“We are writing to the US authorities for information on the citizens who have fallen victim to this kind of scam perpetrated through fake call centres in India. This kind of fraud has become a sort of epidemic with several operating around the country,” a senior police officer in Bengaluru supervising the investigation said.
As many as 72 employees and 12 operators of the centres were arrested by the police.
“During the searches police arrested nearly 72 callers working for the company running the fraud and the main kingpins belonging to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, employing young graduates from various places in India mainly Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi,” the Bengaluru police said in a statement on July 8.
The added: “Callers targeted mainly victims from the United States of America and the modus operandi mainly involved sending text, voice, and email messages to potential targets that a fraudulent, suspect transaction or purchase is noticed in one of their accounts like a bank account or an Amazon account and that they are calling on behalf of the bank or Amazon to resolve the fraudulent transaction.”