Delhi Police have cracked down on an illegal call centre running a sophisticated credit card fraud scheme that duped victims of nearly Rs85 lakh. The operation, spanning Delhi, Haryana, and Telangana, saw six arrests.
The scam surfaced after Virender Kumar, a 42-year-old resident of Dwarka, filed a complaint in June about an unauthorized Rs2.81 lakh transaction on his private bank credit card. The fraudsters had contacted him claiming to help generate a PIN for his new card.
Police investigations revealed the gang operated from a call centre in Vikaspuri, West Delhi. The accused contacted credit card holders, offering credit limit extensions and PIN generation services. They sent malicious APK files to victims’ phones, gaining unauthorized access to SMS and banking data. Using stolen card limits, the gang transferred money to mule accounts, purchasing high-end mobile phones from e-commerce sites. These phones were then sold at discounted rates to retail shops, impersonating official company dealers.
According to Ankit Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Dwarka, technical surveillance traced calls to Vikaspuri while mule accounts and SIM cards were managed from Panipat, Bhatinda, and Hyderabad. Simultaneous raids led to the arrest of kingpin Vijay Kumar Sharma and five accomplices: Moolchand Mishra, Gaurav, Hemant, Amit, and Pradeep Sahu.
Vijay, 46, is a Commerce graduate with an LLB and software training. The other accused had education levels ranging from primary school to Class 12. Police seized 41 mobile phones, a laptop, a router, and diaries with bank customer details.
The National Cybercrime Reporting portal linked 95 complaints to the seized phones, indicating total fraud of about Rs85 lakh. The police cracked the case through analysis of IP addresses, IMEI numbers, UPI transactions, telecom trails, and banking data.
