A 33-YEAR-OLD man was arrested by Kolkata Police on Friday for allegedly running a fake call centre and duping US citizens of money. Sharafat Ali, along with his aides, were running the call centre — M/S JB Infotech Pvt Ltd — from Beckbagan Row in Karaya area.
“They used to call US citizens through VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) posing as employees of Microsoft Corporation after downloading their phone data from the Internet. They would then tell them that their system has been hacked and their data compromised. They used to compel the US nationals to cough up some money ranging anything between 199 USD and 300 USD. Ali and his aides used to then ask them to pay the money through MoneyGram or the Western Union to restore their system,” said Joint CP (Crime) Vishal Garg.
Sources in the police said the accused would use a specific software named ‘Team Viewer’ for this purpose. Several CPUs, i-phones, laptops, and other incriminating documents were seized during the raid at the call centre, sources added.
The accused was produced before Bankshall court, which remanded him to nine days of police custody.
Ali, sources said, is a resident of Ballygunj area. His name had initially cropped up in the controversial Park Street rape case, but later police found him to be innocent. One of the accused in the rape case had introduced himself to police as Sharafat Ali. During the investigation, police found that Ali was not present at the spot where the crime happened.
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