KOLKATA: A group of youths from Kolkata who used to scam Canadian nationals from a fake call centre in Lucknow were arrested on Tuesday during simultaneous raids in Lucknow and Kolkata by officers of Kolkata Police’s cyber-crime department acting on Interpol alerts sent from Canada through the National Central Bureau (NCB), India.
Kolkata Police had registered a suo motu case based on enquiry into a specific input from Interpol, Ottawa, Canada through NCB, New Delhi, in which the Canadian authority said that while investigating a call centre fraud, they came across a victim, Donna Hegarty Potts, who was duped and had transferred 8,000 CAD (Rs 4.7 lakh) into two Indian accounts in January this year.
“The scamsters posed as representatives of a Canadian telecom firm that offers mobile, internet and satellite TV services, and took money from her in exchange for the service which she never received,” said an officer.
Cops zeroed in on the masterminds, Md Zunaid Ansari of Ekbalpore and Shadab Alam of Garden Reach. They split into two teams. One team raided an office at New Garua Khan Market in Lucknow and arrested Ansari (24) and four aides. Another team raided an office on Ramnagar Lane in Garden Reach and arrested Alam (34).
Kolkata Police had registered a suo motu case based on enquiry into a specific input from Interpol, Ottawa, Canada through NCB, New Delhi, in which the Canadian authority said that while investigating a call centre fraud, they came across a victim, Donna Hegarty Potts, who was duped and had transferred 8,000 CAD (Rs 4.7 lakh) into two Indian accounts in January this year.
“The scamsters posed as representatives of a Canadian telecom firm that offers mobile, internet and satellite TV services, and took money from her in exchange for the service which she never received,” said an officer.
Cops zeroed in on the masterminds, Md Zunaid Ansari of Ekbalpore and Shadab Alam of Garden Reach. They split into two teams. One team raided an office at New Garua Khan Market in Lucknow and arrested Ansari (24) and four aides. Another team raided an office on Ramnagar Lane in Garden Reach and arrested Alam (34).
