43 cybercriminals arrested as CBI busts Gurugram call centre that duped foreigners

As many as 43 people were arrested as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) busted a Gurugram call centre duping foreigners. The arrests were made after searches were conducted at seven locations across Delhi, Gurugram and Noida.

"It was revealed that transnational cyber-enabled financial crimes in this network were being coordinated across distributed centers mainly directed from a Call Centre Operating from DLF Cyber City, Gurugram," news agency ANI reported.

The CBI's crackdown on cyber criminals was part of an ongoing Operation CHAKRA-III. The central probe agency took action to "successfully dismantle a sophisticated cyber-enabled financial crime network that has been operating across multiple countries since 2022".

"This operation was executed with cooperation from other international law enforcement agencies including FBI (USA) and INTERPOL," the report added. The International Operations Division of CBI had registered a case in connection with the matter.

The CBI is now coordinating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and law enforcement agencies in multiple countries through INTERPOL for follow up on leads.

“So far, 43 accused have been arrested. Further investigation is ongoing,” the CBI added.

What was found during searches?

The CBI raided the office of Innocent Technology (OPC) Pvt Ltd operating from DLF Cyber City, Gurugram, where the central agency found several agents on live calls aimed to cheat foreigners, officials were quoted by PTI as saying.

During the searches, the investigation teams recovered 130 computer hard disks, 65 mobile phones, five laptops, incriminating documents, financial transaction details, call recordings, victim details, and transcripts used for targeting victims.

Explaining the modus operandi of the criminals, the CBI said, "Victims were contacted by impersonation and induced to click on Pop Ups for download of malicious software onto their systems and subsequently induced to make payments for restoration of their system."

It was also revealed that proceeds of crime were channelized from multiple countries to Hong Kong.