The Assam Police Crime Branch and the Guwahati Police with the help of intelligence, carried out raids in various places in Guwahati and discovered eight illegal call centres being run by scammers, scamming Indians and people from other countries in the name of offering technical support, as informed.

Three suspected masterminds of the scam were identified as Debajyoti Dey alias David (aged 30-31 years) from Karimganj, Rajen Sidana (owner of two call centres) from Ludhiana, and Dibyam Arora (aged 31) from Delhi. are arrested and 191 have been detained, as per reports.

According to information shared by a police official, the fraud has been carried out for the past two years and Bitcoin and hawala channels were used to move the earned money.

“A reliable intelligence input was received that some scammer gangs are operational in Guwahati who are involved in operating call centres and cheating Indians and foreign nationals by impersonating technical support staff. They would also pose as customer support representatives”, Guwahati Police Commissioner Diganta Borah shared.

Mr Borah further informed that the scammers would use pop-ups on computers or contact their targets over the phone by claiming to be from a well-known company or organisation, such as a bank, technical support company, government agency or even a popular online service provider creating a false sense of urgency by claiming that the victim’s bank account has been compromised, with the system under a virus attack, owing to which their social media account has been hacked or their personal information is at risk.

As per sources they had employees from across the country, recruited through social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and others.

However, many employees claimed to be unaware of the illegal nature of their work while others accepted being lured by money, as per sources.

The police detained 144 individuals, including 47 women, aged between 21 and 25 years. They also seized 164 desktop computers, 90 laptops, 26 mobile phones, and various electronic gadgets, as reported.

Mr Borah further asked the property owners in the city to be cautious when renting out buildings to prevent the establishment of such illegal operations.