BPOs operated by racketeers

Call centers or BPOs operated by racketeers who are duping people on the pretext of offering jobs and loans, particularly from North India, are a cause of concern for the state police.

The call centres, according to the police are being set up by persons who are well-versed with banking operations or associated with its outsourcing agencies. Several call centers are functioning in the areas around Delhi including Gurgaon and Noida.“The kingpins set up the call centres and employed graduates or Intermediate passouts to cheat gullible persons on the pretext of offering loans, scholarships and businesses,” said Mr K.V.M. Prasad, inspector, lottery and fraud unit, Hyderabad crime station.

He said there were several hundred call centres operating in and around the National Capital Region of Delhi. “About 70 per cent cases of fraud reported in the city have their roots in the area. The police there helps us but much needs to be done,” he said.An official said the police in those cities do not take preventive steps owing to which the dubious call centres have come up. “They collect resumes from online job portals and cheat the applicants after collecting sums ranging between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000. Usually for such small amounts the victims do not come forward to lodge complaints,” an official said.

The victims are initially asked to make a payment of Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 for a job in MNCs.The police said the conmen buy data from famous job portals for Rs 25,000-`40,000. “They create a fake placement website and make calls to job seekers that their resume has been selected for a job in leading IT, banking and international companies and demand money,” said Mr Prasad. Data of most of job portals are compromised as they do not follow stringent processes to keep their information secure. “Sometimes, the fraudsters collect mobile numbers from some websites and use it to dupe people,” said SP, CID Cyber Crime, U. Rammohan.

The bank account, payment gateway and domain names are taken on fake identify and many a times the servers are based abroad. “The payment gate does not physically verify their client and allows payment against commission. Domain registrars and servers do not follow stringent rules and register customers with incomplete details,” said Cyberabad DCP (Crimes) Janaki Sharmila. She said that police teams had busted three BPO rackets recently. The police is writing to their counterparts to help them put an end to fake BPO and call centres.