Nine people who were working at an office in Salt Lake’s Sector V and allegedly posing as members of a technical support group of an e-commerce giant were arrested on charges of duping people in the UK, US and Australia.
The group allegedly made the victims download a legitimate app called TeamViewer, commonly used to share screens during online meetings.
Officers of Bidhannagar cyber crime police station said they had received information that an unauthorised call centre was being run from the fourth floor of Meridian Building in GP Block of Sector V. A team of officers raided the office on Friday night.
“The office was operating under the name ‘JoinusTechsoft Consultancy Services Pvt Ltd’. We arrested nine people and seized a number of documents,” said a senior officer.
Cops are carrying out searches for other team members and those who hired the office.
The police said the callers would allegedly pose as members of a technical support group of an e-commerce company and coax clients in the US, UK and Australia to download an app to avail of discounts on their next purchase on the e-commerce platform.
“Once the clients downloaded the app, the fraudsters asked for a passcode. When that was shared, they could access their targets’ device where the app was downloaded. Next, they would carry out fraudulent online transactions from the accounts of the targets using remote access to their devices without the knowledge of the clients,” said an officer.
“The app is widely used for screen-sharing among team members working on a project so none of the victims got suspicious,” he said.
The police said the nine arrested, between ages 21 and 36, are from Beniapukur, Entally, Topsia, Anandapur and Ballygunge. They were produced at a Bidhannagar court that remanded them in police custody on Saturday.