The Sonarpur-based group that allegedly duped Americans posing as officials of the US department of homeland security had agents in the US working for them and accepted payments in gold, silver, cash and gift cards of Apple and Sephora, police said.
Officers probing the racket said they had come across five types of gift cards given to the swindlers by their victims.
The victims also paid in gold and silver, which agents hired by the group would collect in person from those duped. A gift card can be used to shop for products whose worth is equivalent to the money for which it has been purchased.
“The gang would call up Americans and say there was proof of their links with Russian spies and then convince them to pay to avoid punitive action. The payments were made online or through cryptocurrency,” said an officer in the cyber crime department of Bengal police.
“If a victim could not pay through cryptocurrency or online, he or she was given the option to pay in kind — gold, silver and gold cards.”
The money was transferred online from the US to China and then to Delhi, the police said.
“The gang had an agent in Delhi who would redeem the cryptocurrency and convert the dollars to rupees. We are looking for this man,” said the officer.
Three men have been arrested in connection with the racket, which allegedly operated from the 11th floor of a housing society in Sonarpur, on the city’s southern fringes.
The police said they had traced a transaction of Rs 14 crore from the bank account of the suspected mastermind, Joy Haldar, 25, a resident of East Jadavpur. He was among the three arrested — the other two are Tanmoy Mondal, 25, from Narendrapur, and Subhajit Biswas, 29, of Sonarpur.
Sources said the arrested trio, who are in police custody, have named several others allegedly involved in the racket. “All of them are known by their nicknames. We have yet to identify them by their real names,” a senior police officer said.
The suspects had trained themselves in speaking English with American accents to convince their “clients” that they were indeed from the department of homeland security of the US.
Police officers said that earlier, too, several Indians had been arrested for allegedly duping foreigners posing as technical staff of software companies.
“This was the first instance of people posing as officials of a US security agency and scaring their targets by saying electronic evidence had been found of their links with Russian espionage activities,” an officer said.