Indian call centre that cheated Americans of US$14 million gave staff Christmas bonuses

Workers used fake American accents to swindle some 4,500 people by claiming their bank accounts were linked to drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia

The racket is the latest in a spate of scandals involving fake call centres, with new cases being discovered by cybersecurity investigators every few weeks

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The scammers would tell victims their bank accounts would be frozen unless they paid money to a ‘safe government account’. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 8:00pm, 22 Dec 2020Updated: 1:01am, 23 Dec 2020

A call centre racket in India swindled some 4,500 US nationals out of more than US$14 million over the past two years, after convincing them to hand over their money by claiming their bank accounts were linked to drug cartels.

Police in New Delhi, who said they were stunned at the scale and sophistication of the operation, have been interrogating more than 50 people who were arrested after a December 17 raid on its premises.

The employees of the call centre in Peera Garhi, west of Delhi, would put on American accents and call potential victims pretending to be officials of various American law enforcement agencies – social security or drug enforcement or the US Marshals service.

Police said the kingpins behind the fake call centres often had working knowledge of how these firms operated. Photo: Shutterstock

They would tell people that their bank accounts were going to be frozen or seized because they were linked to criminal transactions with drug cartels in Colombia and Mexico.

The callers said their bank details had been found at the crime scene and, following their arrest, they would have to prove their innocence in court.