Chennai: Serial scamster calls city police officer; operation busted

CHENNAI: It was a wicked irony that the telecaller ‘working’ at a scam call centre operating in a commercial plaza in the heart of the city ended up calling – out of the 1 crore people in the city – a police Inspector.

The eerie coincidence was that the Inspector’s team was already probing a cyber fraud complaint from a senior citizen with the exact modus operandi.

In a matter of hours after the Inspector received the call, the city police busted the operation run by a seasoned fraudster, who was arrested for a similar crime in 2020 and was detained under the Goondas Act. He seems to have continued from where he left after being released from prison.

According to city police, the bust happened on Wednesday (June 25) evening. Inspector Shanti Devi of West Zone cyber crime police station had received a phone call early in the day, wherein the caller, who identified herself as Nandhini from HDFC Bank, told her that her 2018 insurance policy had matured and that the Inspector was eligible for Rs 2.85 lakh.

“Recently, we had received a complaint from a 65-year-old resident from Arumbakkam, who ended up paying Rs 18.6 lakh to fraudsters after they convinced him to take insurance policies, promising Rs 4.2 crore at the end of maturity,” Shanti told DT Next.

Intrigued, Shanti continued the conversation with Nandhini and played the part of an unassuming denizen desperate for money, and asked her how soon could she withdraw the money, to which Nandhini replied that she should pay Rs 15,000 as GST charges for processing.

“I asked Nandhini where I should submit my documents to which I was told that a personal visit was not necessary, and that they would provide a link to which the documents shall be uploaded. After processing, I would get the matured amount in a week,” Shanti recalled. “Soon, a man claiming to be her senior officer spoke to me asking if I understood what Nandhini said. His tone was nothing like that of a bank executive, and he sounded like a ruffian.”

The Inspector told callers that she was in a hospital and that she would get back to them for more details, and hung up. She then began background searches on the caller.

The West Zone cyber crime teams, which were already probing the elderly man’s complaint, found that the calls to him had come from the Chennai region and were preparing to zero-in on the location. According to a senior police officer, it’s the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of cyber crime teams to find the location of the scam callers and act swiftly if it’s within the State.

Since Shanti had received a phone call from a potential scamster, the top brass of the city police were informed. In coordination with the telecom authorities, it was ascertained that the call had originated from the first floor of JVL Plaza on Rangoon Street, Teynampet off Anna Salai.

Police decoys were sent to the commercial plaza where it was seen that about 50 tele-callers were crammed in an office space with no name outside. After credible information that a scam call centre was being operated, a police team barged into the office and rounded up the callers. It was learnt that the callers were all fresh graduates and were given a paltry salary of Rs 12,000 and given a script to follow.

The script was prepared by Munir Hussain, whom the callers identified as their manager. In no time, police found that Hussain had been arrested by the city police’s Central Crime Branch (CCB) in 2020 for running a scam call centre.

“He initially claimed that he was running a legitimate business and that he was a changed man, but the evidence proved otherwise,” a senior police official said.

Hussain and his associate Asokan were arrested. On the advice of the top brass, the case was transferred to CCB for further probe. Police sources said that Hussain’s brother-in-law, Javid, who was arrested in 2020 too was running another scam call centre in a nearby area. He had immediately shut shop on learning about the arrival of police at Hussain’s call centre.

Commissioner A Arun congratulated the West Zone cyber crime team for their bust.

Full-scale scam in the heart of the city

Ramanathan (65), a resident of Arumbakkam, had recently approached the West Zone cyber crime police station stating that he was conned of Rs 18.6 lakh by cyber fraudsters. The callers had told him that his PNB Metlife policy had matured and that their agency could help him withdraw the amount.

On the advice of scamsters, Ramanathan took 17 new policies as he was promised that he would receive more than Rs 4 crore at the end of the maturity period. For the policies, he ended up paying Rs 18.6 lakh to the accounts mentioned by the scamsters. Even as the West Zone cyber crime police were probing his complaint, a tele-caller from a scam call centre made a phone call to Inspector Shanti.

Following the leads, the city police busted the scam call centre that was operating in the heart of the city. Preliminary probe revealed that the call centre busted by the team was unrelated to the call centre from where Ramanathan had received the call.

Police said that the scam call centres get personal data for a price from classified websites. Sometimes, the victims end up sharing all the personal information the scamsters need.