Superintendent of Police Tuhin Sinha producing the accused before the media in Anakapalli on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Anakapalli police have busted a cybercrime syndicate in Atchutapuram mandal on Thursday and arrested 33 persons for their alleged involved in a fake call centre scam.
The accused were allegedly impersonating the staff of Amazon customer support and targeting U.S.A. citizens. The value of the fraud has been estimated to be around ₹20 crore.
Anakapalli Superintendent of Police Tuhin Sinha told the media that acting on a tip-off, the police conducted simultaneous raids at three places in Atchutapuram and busted the cybercrime racket, which had allegedly been operating for the past two years.
Computers, networking devices, and digital infrastructure were seized during the raids.
Punit Goswami from Maharashtra and Avihant Daga from Rajasthan are suspected to be the main accused as they used to dupe people by impersonating managers of Amazon customer support teams.
The group that ran the fake call centre had a systematic and organised hierarchical structure, the SP said while describing the modus operandi of the fraudsters.
“At the first level of the team are diallers recruited from North Eastern States. They would call U.S. citizens by introducing themselves as the staff of Amazon customer support. They would tell the targeted customers that an unauthorised transaction had been made through their Amazon account. Customers who yield to their queries would be told to share confidential personal details. Then the diallers would escalate the calls to the second level, anchors,” the SP explained.
The anchors would introduce themselves as bank officials and members of the Federal Trade Commission (FDC). They would try to convince customers that some fraudulent activities were going on and try to gather bank details and social security numbers. “The anchors would then forward the cases to the third level, which would introduce them as the closure team. They would convince the gullible customers to buy gift cards and share redemption codes,” the SP said.
In the next stage, the managers would connect with the customers and try to redeem gift cards using online tools, cryptocurrency platforms and dark web exchanges. The SP said that the managers then send these cases to the next level, which is yet to be cracked during the investigation.
The police found that the fake call centre gang had a proper HR and administration wing, which recruits people from Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Gujarat. They train them in U.S. English accent, impersonation techniques and handling customers with in-call scripts. The gang was found using VOIP masking, identity theft, spoofed communication, and international money laundering channels, the SP said.
Mr. Sinha said these gang members are paid a salary in the range of ₹25,000 and ₹75,000. During the raid, the police have seized ₹3 lakh in cash, which was about to be given to the employees as bonuses.
“The gang would dupe the customers of thousands of dollars each, indicating massive cumulative losses,” he added.
The SP also stated that the district police are conducting an in-depth investigation with support from cyber forensic experts and law enforcement agencies. Efforts are on to trace the entire syndicate hierarchy, uncover the financial and digital trail, and identify the masterminds operating at higher levels, including possible international links.
Published – May 23, 2025 12:14 am IST
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