New Delhi: Police have busted a fake call centre in West Delhi’s Tilak Nagar and nabbed nine persons, including seven female tele-callers, for allegedly duping job seekers on the pretext of employment in reputed companies. Police received a complaint via NCRP in which the complainant alleged that he was contacted through two mobile numbers and duped of Rs 11,000 for uniforms and accessories for a purported airport job. DCP (South) Ankit Chauhan formed a team under the supervision of Additional DCP Sumit Jha to investigate the matter. The team traced the suspect to Subhash Nagar and arrested Vikash Kumar (38). Five mobile phones, including those linked to fraudulent bank accounts, were recovered from his possession. Kumar confessed to running a fake job call centre in Ganesh Nagar with his associates. A follow-up raid led to the arrest of seven female tele- callers. They were paid Rs 15,000 per month in cash and were tasked with contacting job seekers, collecting personal details and persuading them to make payments. Investigations also revealed that the SIM cards used in the racket were fraudulently issued by Baljeet Singh (31), an employee at a telecom service provider’s store in Vikaspuri. Singh misused the biometric data of genuine customers to activate multiple SIM cards, which were later supplied to the fraudsters. Singh was also arrested. The accused are linked to over 40 similar complaints across different states. Kumar, along with his associates Suraj and Kapil, ran the racket for about a year. They posted fake job advertisements online, impersonated airline company representatives, and received payments from victims through QR codes managed by Kapil. Victims were typically asked to pay in stages — Rs 2,500 as a security deposit, Rs 5,000–Rs 8,000 for uniforms and shoes and Rs 10,000–Rs 15,000 for opening a salary account. The gang targeted job seekers, exploiting the fact that many of them refrained from lodging complaints due to the relatively small amounts involved. Explaining Singh’s role, police said, “When genuine customers visited the store with SIM-related issues, he falsely claimed their biometrics were not properly verified. Using this pretext, he captured their biometric data again and fraudulently issued new SIM cards in their names, which were later provided to the fraudsters.”
