Police find the details of 40 US nationals duped by group of men in Sonarpur
Telegraph | 5 February 2025
Police have found the details of at least 40 US nationals who have been duped by a group of men in Sonarpur who impersonated officials of the United States’ department of homeland security (DHS) and threatened them that evidence had emerged that Russians used their computers for suspicious activities.
The cyber wing of Bengal police has started contacting the victims one by one, an officer said.
“We have found the database of at least 40 such persons based in the US who had been contacted and duped by the gang running this call centre in Sonarpur,” deputy inspector-general of police (cyber crime wing) Anjali Singh said on Tuesday.
The individual statements of the victims become especially important before the court to get the accused convicted.
Once the contact is established, their statements may be recorded through video conferencing by the police as witnesses in this case, the police said.
Three persons arrested in connection with this case are in police remand.
“We are trying to collect more information,” Singh added.
Sources said the laptops, phones and other devices found in possession of the arrested trio would be sent for forensic examinations and retrieval of the deleted data, if any.
The police suspect more people are involved in the racket operating at least since 2021.
The police have found that the men running the call centre from the 11th floor of a housing complex in Sonarpur, had trained themselves in speaking English with an American accent to convince their “clients” that they were indeed from the DHS in the US.
Several police officers said earlier also several Indians have been arrested for duping foreigners settled abroad by posing as technical staff of software companies or anti-virus companies.
But this was a new way of duping people by posing as the officials of the US security agency and scaring the targets by saying that electronic evidence had been found that made them suspects of espionage for the Russians.
The police identified the accused as Joy Halder, 25, of East Jadavpur, Tanmoy Mondal, 25, of Narendrapur and Subhajit Biswas, 29 of Sonarpur.
Haldar, the suspected kingpin had purchased two apartments — one in New Town and the other at Sodepur — whose total worth is ₹2.5 crore, a police officer said.
An Audi A4-40 TFSI whose market value, the police said, is ₹52 lakh has also been seized from his possession.