3 held for duping 250 people through fake call centre since 2017: Police

Three members of a gang, including a civil defence volunteer, have been arrested for allegedly duping nearly 250 people on the pretext of offering gifts against the reward points in their credit cards, police said on Saturday.

Manish Gupta (23) and two of his associates -- Ashish (25) and Abhishek (24) -- have been arrested, while efforts are on to nab the other members of the gang, they said.

The police said Manish had earlier worked in a call centre, from where he got the idea of setting up a fake call centre and luring people with lucrative offers. Along with his associates, he started running a fake call centre from 2017 and has confessed to have duped nearly 250 people across the country, the police said.

Ashish works at a garment store while Abhishek works as a civil defence volunteer.

A probe was launched on September 6 after a complaint from a CISF constable, serving on deputation in the CBI, was lodged at the Lodhi Colony police station, the police said.

The complainant received a call on his mobile phone from an unknown number on January 15. The caller offered to deliver a gift against the reward points in his credit card. Following the caller's instructions, he deposited Rs 8,970 in a bank account, after which the caller stopped contacting him and blocked his number.

An analysis of the transaction revealed that the money was received by the accused through Paytm. The details of the related accounts were obtained, following which the three accused were nabbed, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said.

Manish was arrested from his Pandav Nagar house. He revealed that he was using Ashish's bank account to receive the stolen money from people. For this, he gave Ashish a 20-per cent commission, the officer said.

Manish had nine bank accounts to receive the stolen money and had hired Ashish and Abhishek to get more accounts opened, the DCP said.

The police have recovered Rs 6 lakh from the accounts of the accused. Several accounts have been frozen and ATMs cards seized by the police.