Nineteen people have been arrested for allegedly making fraudulent calls to people in the US posing as employees of a reputable antivirus company and cheating them on the pretext of upgrading the software.

The group operated out of an office in a building on Mullen Street in the Ballygunge police station area, police said. They were arrested on Monday evening.

Police said several mobile phones, laptops, routers and gadgets used to run a call centre were seized from the office.

“These people posed as employees of Norton AntiVirus company and approached clients in the US convincing them to update their software. While doing so, they would make the clients install an app in their device that would give the swindlers remote access to the devices,” said a Kolkata Police officer.

Next, the swindlers would try to convince the clients to purchase gift cards they claimed would be redeemed into the purchaser’s account. However, the police said the money would be fraudulently transferred into the accounts of the racketeers.

The police said they were in the process of preparing a list of people conned by the group.

Upgrading antivirus software is common for all laptop users. Swindlers use it as bait to make potential victims download a new app. The victims would never suspect that the app would help swindlers to gain remote access to their devices.

The 19 were picked up by a team of the anti-rowdy squad of the police’s detective
department.

They have been charged with sections of cheating and fraud and under the Information Technology Act.

A senior police officer said the best way to remain safe is to decline app download requests from strangers.