The Delhi Police busted three illegal call centres and arrested 37 people for allegedly duping foreign nationals of amount equivalent to crores of rupees, officials said on Tuesday. One of the call centres was being operated from Bindapur while the other two were functioning at West Delhi’s Janakpuri area.

The accused ran multiple fake processes from their call centres — including Social Security Number scam, Apple Tech Support scam and Amazon Tech Support scam wherein they extorted money from people on various pretexts, they said. The police said the accused pretended to be officials of either US Drug Enforcement or they posed as officials of Apple Technical Support or Amazon Technical Support and sent voice recordings to extort money from their potential targets.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Cell) Anyesh Roy said, “On the basis of secret information that large-scale cybercrime was being committed from Bindapur and Janakpuri, a raid was conducted on the premises and it was found that different accused were running illegal call centres in Bindapur and Janakpuri.” Two separate cases were registered against the call centres and a total of 37 people, including managers, supervisors and operators, were arrested, out of which 9 were working at the Bindapur centre and 28 at the Janakpuri centres, he said. A total of 56 desktops and 41 phones have been seized from the three locations, he added.

“As disclosed by the accused, they have conned thousands of foreigners of over Rs 10 crore through the Bindapur call centre. Money was extorted from them in the name of their Social Security Number wherein the accused contacted foreign nationals based in the US and other countries impersonating various law enforcement agencies and other government agencies,” the officer said. They would tell them that their bank accounts and other assets were being frozen as their details were found at a crime scene and there were bank accounts running in their names using which illegal transactions were made to drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia. The wold also threaten the targets with immediate arrest, he said.

Through the Janakpuri call centres, the accused confessed to have duped thousands of foreigners of more than Rs 5 crore by impersonating representatives from Amazon Technical Support team and Apple Technical Support team, the police said.